Dare! The Next Generation
by Zokusho
Summary: OC WARNING! This story is is a sequel of my Truth or Dare and Dare! stories, set 15 years in the future. There are four new main characters, all OCs: Konami, Akane, Yuno, and Tomoe. They are descendants of some of the original LS crew, who do make appearances now and then. Also, this is not purely a slice of life.
1. Fragments

**Lucky Star, the Next Generation: Chapter 1: Fragments**

Written for the 19th Challenge of Mostly Lucky Star Forum. T rated due to some slightly saucy parts in later chapters. This is just sort of an introductory chapter, nothing really happens – not that anything happens in a slice of life anyway. (-_^)

This is the sequel of Lucky Star: Truth or Dare and Lucky Star: Dare! fics. So I'd better WARN YOU: there are lots of OCs around. All the main characters are OCs. That's because they are the descendants of (some) of the original Lucky Star characters. It's year 2024, and the main characters are just about to begin their first year of high school, at Ryōō High where their parents used to go.

I don't own Lucky Star (nor the V*caloids).

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><p>A warm ray of the sun shone through the gap in the curtains. The heat and the light blazing directly into Akane Shiraishi's eyes woke her up. She rubbed her eyes, stretched her arms, and turned the alarm clock off before it would start ringing. Except that it was already turned off. And it was <em>too late o'clock<em> for her.

"No! Not today!" Akane screamed, and reared up from the bed. Frantically, she ripped her nightgown off, ignoring the sound of tearing fabric, and grabbed her school uniform skirt. She had prepared the white and blue-striped uniform of Ryōō High last night. Her school bag was also ready for the first day of high school.

There was no time to set her hair properly, so she just snatched two ribbons. She already knew that a ponytail looked terrible on her. So twin-tails it would be. Childish, but better than this long messy tangle she had after a night's sleep.

"Mom! Dad! Why didn't you wake me up!" she shouted as she charged along the hallway.

There was no answer; her parents were still asleep in their separate rooms. Dad had just come back from Russia – he worked as a flight steward. And mother, she had had a late night again, God knows where. She wouldn't be up until noon or so. But still they had had time to fight last night.

But Akane had no time to think about family problems now. There wasn't time for anything except to get school in time. At least she lived within a walking distance of the school. Two miles, not a very short walk, but a walking distance nonetheless, and she was much more fortunate than most of the others who could have two hours commute.

Of course, trouble didn't come alone. It came in threes, or more. All the traffic lights seemed to turn red just before she got across the street. The streets were unusually crowded. Extra slow walking _ob__ā__san_s' blocked her way. Also, she absolutely had to stop to pet a really cute cat on the way.

Finally, at the school gates, she almost sprained her ankle. The loud crunch it made scared her, but apparently nothing was seriously broken. But she had to limp the rest of the way. The first bell was already playing the familiar Big Ben tune. A five-minute warning. But since it was the first day, she would have liked to be here early, not just on time.

Grimacing in pain, she hobbled to the shoe lockers, opened the locker which had her number - and found someone else's shoes already inside.

She realized she was standing there like some idiot, her mouth open, and holding her shoes. Some girls were standing nearby, whispering to each other, and giggling. _"Everyone's laughing at me…"_ Akane thought. Of course the girls weren't laughing at her, she told herself, but as usual she couldn't convince herself.

The day before Akane had promised herself that she wouldn't cry. That she wouldn't show any weakness at school. Despite her low self-esteem, self-hatred, and inability to make friends, she would not cry! So she swallowed her tears and pondered whether she could fit her outdoor shoes into her bag.

A bright voice chirped, "Hi, Goldilocks! Are you in class 1-D?"

Akane whipped her head around and saw a child. Or that's what she looked like at the first glance. The person had some kind of goggles on her eyes, an impossibly long lilac hair that seemed to reach her heels, and a loose strand of hair sticking up on the top of her head; an _ahoge_, idiot hair, as that sort of thing was called. And she was very, very short. Probably not even 150 centimeters. But she was wearing the school uniform, so she had to be at least fifteen years old. The short person smiled warmly at Akane.

The appearance of the short person had astonished Akane so much that she couldn't even reply. _"No, I'm in class 1-E…"_ Akane thought. It was too late to say anything, because she was already gone. _"Oh, these are class 1-D lockers. Mine is the next row…"_

"Hey! What did she call just me!" Akane groaned. But, she had to time to think about it now. After she found her own shoe locker she ran into the classroom – her ankle seemed to have mysteriously healed, or maybe that last humiliation just made her forget the pain. And in the class she would face one of her nightmares: everyone else would already be there. They would all go silent and turn to stare at her when she entered. She only hoped she would be there before their homeroom teacher – someone called Nanako Kuroi-sensei.

The classroom door was open, and to her relief, only a few people stared at her. Most of them were staring the other way; at a tall, athletic, blonde girl with short hair. Especially the girls were staring. Akane could see why; this blonde had something that would attract girls … of _that_ kind. Not that she knew anything about girls of that kind!

Anyway, she still had other things to do. Namely, to get a seat where she wouldn't attract any attention. Of course, all the back seats were already taken, except for one. Quickly, she hurried to the back of the classroom and into the last desk on the window row. She plopped her bag down, sat down, and leaned onto the seat, sighing in relief. It was not the optimal seat, but as long as she would come in early in the morning and leave the last, she wouldn't be noticed.

Slowly, Akane become aware of the person sitting ahead of her. She was that same short girl that had adviced her at the shoe lockers. _"Oh, hi, you are in my class? My name is Akane Shiraishi. Thank you for helping me before. What's your name?"_

Of course, she couldn't actually _say_ any of that. She had never been able to talk with strangers. Or new classmates, even.

And soon they all had to stand up and bow to their new homeroom teacher. Akane knew Nanako Kuroi was in her 40's or so, but looked very fit and youthful for her age. She had beautiful, long, straw-colored hair.

The rest of the day was so busy that Akane had no time to speak to the short girl. It would have taken too long for her to gather her courage to open her mouth. In middle school, she didn't talk to anyone at all during the first two weeks. Like in there, everyone here also felt so _alpha_ – confident, social, extroverted. That short girl seemed to immediately be friends with the tall, attractive blonde athlete and some other girl who had pink hair.

"_Everyone else already made friends. I'm forever alone…"_

But in was a pain she was used to. Besides, there was another kind of pain, in her stomach. She had not eaten anything since yesterday. _"At least I might lose some weight today."_

She bent and twirled her ankle. Strange, it was not hurting at all. Well, another little strike of luck, compensating all the misfortune of today.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

"Second day of high school and it's already come to this," Konami – that short girl who sat in front of Akane in class – sighed.

It was the next day after the orientation day, and four boys from another freshman class had her cornered in the back of the yard on the first recess.

"So, you got two homo parents, squirt?" the biggest bully asked.

"Disgusting," one of his comrades complied.

"I'm recording this," Konami said, and adjusted her goggles.

"Those computer glasses look fragile, they might get broken," the bully growled, and took a step forward.

"That's only the display. The actual computer is on my hip, here," Konami explained, and patted the small bag that hung on her left hip. "But it's too late anyway. This is going into the net as we speak. My mates are watching the stream and they say you are a coward."

"You're bluffing, shorty," the boy growled, and clenched his fists.

"Also, Tomo-chan is right behind you."

"What? Who?"

The four bullies looked back and saw a six-foot tall girl, a virtual giant for a Japanese high-school girl. She had blue eyes and short, blonde hair. And more muscles than they had ever seen on a girl. She grinned at the four boys, and said, "Yo, Konami. What's up?"

This was Tomoe Tamura, daughter of Patricia Martin and Hiyori Tamura, who had been on the same class with Konami since elementary school, and was one of her closest friends.

"What the hell is that!" one of the boys gasped. "What a freak!"

"Hey, that wasn't very polite," Tomoe commented, dashed forward and grabbed the two biggest bullies by the back of their neck, careful not to squeeze too hard. The boys started to groan in pain. Tomoe literally lifted them up, bumped their foreheads together, and let them slump onto the ground. The two other boys ran away in panic.

Konami eyed the two stunned boys. Didn't look that like they had died or anything. Tomoe had been careful. "Why don't you join one of the sports clubs, Tomo-chan?"

"I already did."

"Oh."

"But all the others were still pestering me, that's why I escaped here and saw you with these idiots."

They started walking back to the school building, going around the canopies and stands set up by the various clubs. Konami already knew there was only one club she would join, and that would be the "go home club".

"Thanks Tomo-chan, though I'd like to have tried my skills too. Maybe next time!" Konami exclaimed.

Konami had a black belt in aikido, not that she made a big thing about it. "Goldilocks looks tough. Wonder if she knows martial arts?" she muttered.

"Goldilocks?" Tomoe asked, but Konami was deep in thoughts and didn't answer.

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"New regulations say we have to assign seats at random. Every year," Kuroi-sensei groaned. Sighing, she took out a paper. "Class rep, please arrange people according to this chart the headmaster printed. Can you believe he actually forces us to do this? How can I remember anyone's name now…"

Akane found herself in the very same seat as before. Window row, in the back. And the same short girl sitting ahead of her, again.

This time the short girl finally noticed her. And she spoke to her. "Can you believe this, Goldilocks? It must be fate! We two are bound to stay together!"

"Shut up! I-it's not like I wanted to sit behind you! This is just a coincidence!" immediately blurted out of Akane's mouth. She wished she could have thought of saying anything else, but this was her nature.

Konami – Akane had learned her name during the roll call – cooed in delight at this classic _tsundere_ performance.

"And what did you just call me?"

"Goldilocks. 'cause your hair is golden. And pretty, too. And twin-tails are very cute," Konami explained. She was at least half-serious.

Akane had twin-tails again. Today she had not overslept, but somehow she still didn't have time to set up her hair properly. Her cheeks advanced one degree deeper red on the blush scale. "My name is Akane Shiraishi! Okay? And you are Konami Izumi. I actually learn the names of my classmates, unlike some people."

"Oh, do you? Well, then, who's that?" Konami asked, pointing at a pink-haired girl who had her nose buried into a volume of manga, who was sitting on the next row, next to Konami.

"T-that is, umm … she's …" Akane stuttered. "Ehh… well I don't remember quite _every_ name just yet! Do _you_ know who she is, anyway?"

"That's Yuno Izumi."

"Izumi? Is she related to you? She doesn't look anything like you."

"She is family. My grandfather is her father."

It took a while for Akane to comprehend what she thought Konami had just said. "What?"

Konami had some experience in explaining this, so she knew it wouldn't be easy. "Yuno's father, Sōjirō Izumi, is my second mother's, Konata Izumi's father. And Yuno's mother is Sōjirō's second wife, Yukari Takara."

Akane simply shook her head.

Konami dug out a chart from her bag. "Look, here's my grandfather and grandmother. Sōjirō and Kanata. Konata Izumi, here, is my second mother. My first mother is Kagami Hiiragi. And Yuno, here, is Sōjirō's and Yukari Takara's daughter."

"You have prepared a chart?" Akane gasped. "…I guess it's easier that way," she added.

Suddenly it hit Akane. "Wait, you said have two mothers!"

Konami sighed. "Let's meet after school some time and I'll explain. It's a long story."

"I-it's not like I …" Akane managed to gulp down the words she was about to say, 'wanted to be asked out', and continued instead, "…have to know about your family! B-but, sure, maybe someday when I don't have other plans."

Not that she ever had any.

Konami's half-sister, Yuno, had been following the discussion. "I'd like to try that new cake buffet some day," she said, and smiled brightly, revealing a row of perfect white teeth.

And Akane saw Yuno's face the first time – until now it had been hidden behind a volume of manga. And she was absolutely gorgeous, the prettiest girl Akane had ever seen. From the tip of her cute little nose to the luscious, naturally pink lips, the deep emerald eyes, the flowing pink hair and a lean body which had curves at the exact right places, Yuno was absolute perfection. And apparently, she was all this without wearing any make-up. Akane felt a different kind of sting in her heart, that of jealously.

Konami giggled as she saw Akane suddenly looked blushed and somehow out of breath. "Yeah, that's what usually happens," she commented.

"W-what…?" Akane gasped.

"Silence!" Kuroi-sensei yelled. "Open your touchpads! We'll begin by downloading some files from school server…"

While Japanese high schools were still rather conservative, they had mostly given up books, since everyone was carrying a powerful laptop – called a touchpad – anyway. The touchpads of 2024 were, of course, slim and light, connected into the net, and all of them doubled as complex communication devices. They invariably had 3D displays – goggles for those who preferred to hang in the net all their waking hours and use all sorts of HUD applications, like Konami. The human interfaces varied from projected keyboards and mouses to speech recognition, although the latter was not allowed in classrooms due to the noise.

Only the tests were mostly done on pen and paper, for obvious reasons.

Akane's fingers were flying almost inhumanly fast on the keyboard projection her N*kia projected onto the desk. One thing she was proud about was her typing speed. She saw that not even Konami, a denizen of the computer world, seemed to be nearly as fast, with her short and pudgy fingers.

At the corner of her eye, she noticed that Konami even looked a bit jealous, which raised a little smile on Akane's lips.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

That day, Akane was facing another of her nightmares. The health examination. Thankfully, things were different in high school. No longer they all had to strip and stand in a line all together, but everyone got in alone.

Thankfully, Akane's name began with _shi_ and so she didn't have to wait too long. Crowds always made her nervous.

Some of the girls came out of the nurse's office in tears, some pouting, some frowning, and only a very few of them looking confident. Her classmates, Konami, Yuno, and Tomoe were all of the confident sort, as she had guessed.

The visit into nurse's office turned strange. The nurse didn't even ask Akane to strip. She only weighed her and got her height, and muttered something about some doctor who had called her beforehand. The entire examination took only three minutes.

Akane didn't care to ask about it. She was just happy that she didn't have to strip or anything. Come to think of it, she didn't remember when she last time had to visit a nurse or a doctor and take off her clothes.

"Wow, that was fast. How did it go?" Konami asked, when Akane came out.

"Eh … what do you mean, how did it go! What kind of question is that?" Akane groaned.

"I'm just interested in your measures…"

"None of your business!"

Konami sighed deeply. "But Yuno and Tomo-chan always tell me their measures! All of them!"

Akane almost wanted to ask, "Why?", but she decided she didn't want to know. Instead, she said, "My measures are completely normal for a girl of my age. But I do think I need to lose a few more pounds."

Konami stared directly at her chest, and said, "Eeeeh?"

"Don't eeeeh at my breasts!" Akane hissed, and crossed her hands in front of her.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

Another day. Akane was getting more comfortable at school. By now, she knew many more of her classmates, the female ones, that is, and they even greeted each other every day. Also, Akane didn't spend all her spare time staring out of the window anymore, but she even talked to other people.

All of this was probably thanks to her new friends. The fact that Akane had friends was something she almost couldn't comprehend. Every day, she expected for them to stop being her friends and stop talking to her, because there was so many more interesting, better looking, and talkative people in the class. At first she couldn't understand why Konami, Tomoe, and Yuno wanted to be friends with her.

Maybe it was because of the food?

The first time she had bought boxed lunch with her Konami invited her to have lunch together. "Us? Lunch together? Why?" was the first thing Akane asked.

"Why not? It's fun to eat together. And today we all brought our own lunch. I want to see what's in everyone's lunch box."

They moved their desks together and sat down. Konami waited impatiently when Akane took her lunch box out. "What?"

"Open it up! I want to see!" Konami chirped.

Akane started to feel embarrassed. "Why are you all staring at my lunch box? Aren't you opening yours?"

"We are curious," Yuno explained.

"Well, we can open them up at the same time …" Konami sighed, and unwrapped her box. "Ready? One, two, three, go!"

Akane noticed that Konami's and Yuno's lunch boxes were identical. "Ah, of course. You live in the same house. What is that?"

"Oh, Yuno made our lunch as usual. I can't cook. I make pots explode," Konami explained.

Akane looked at them with obvious disbelief.

"It is true," Yuno confirmed. "She really does that. Anyway, this is rice with a pickled plum, of course, and here's omelet, sausages, tomatoes, and boiled asparagus wrapped in bacon."

"That's pretty common," Akane said, without thinking. "S-sorry! I didn't mean it's bad or anything. What do you have, Tomoe?"

Tomoe's box looked quite bland. "Lots of rice, chicken meat, lettuce, tomato," Tomoe listed.

"The sad thing is," Konami moaned, "that Tomo-chan is the best cook of us three! And she almost never cooks anything but healthy food."

All of the girls turned to stare at Akane's lunch box, which she had instinctively been covering with her hands.

"Who made that?" Konami gasped.

"… I did," Akane said quietly. Somehow, it was again embarrassing. Because compared to the others', her lunch box was elaborate. Or not even elaborate, but luxurious.

Of course, there was rice in one box, but it was chestnut rice. The other box had colorful sushi rolls wrapped in seaweed, little steamed packets made of dough, a portion of salad which seemed to have a lot of different ingredients, and finally a small piece of cake with several layers and pink icing on top.

"You … made … that?" Konami asked, without believing her eyes. "What IS all that?"

The other people in the class were starting to take notice, which made Akane blush even brighter. "It's nothing! Just chestnut rice, rainbow sushi rolls with raw tuna, cucumber, lettuce, pickled pumpkin and sesame seeds, some dim sum, soy bean and cold fried noodle salad with seaweed strips and stuff, and raspberry pastry…"

There was a long, awkward silence. Akane wanted the floor to open up and swallow her.

"Can I have a taste?" Konami finally gasped.

"S-sure…"

Konami caught one of the dim sums in her chopsticks and took a bite.

"Akane …" she said quietly, after finishing it.

"W-what?"

"Will you marry me?"

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

Kuroi-sensei was late again, so they were waiting for the class to start. Konami was chuckling to herself while she fiddled her hand on top of the desk – of course, these days there was no need for a physical "mouse" like a decade ago. They could barely hear a bubbly, bright music in her earplugs.

"What are you watching?" Akane asked. She knew Konami heard her, because Konami never wanted to miss anything her friends said, in case they said something funny she could tease them about.

"Oh, just the latest V*caloid gig …" Konami muttered.

In 2024, V*ocaloids were real. That is, they were walking and breathing people – although they were androids. They lived actual lives, they performed, they appeared in variety and quiz shows, they dated celebrities, and they had sex scandals. Androids who were sophisticated enough were Japanese citizens with full human rights.

Without thinking, Akane asked, "You need to zoom around that much for a concert?"

She quickly withdrew her question, "Never mind! I don't want to hear!"

Of course, this being Konami, she would answer it anyway. "Oh, I'm just checking what kind of panties Miku is wearing, and it's hard to get to the correct angle where –"

"And you answered anyway," Akane sighed. "At least you are not a raving otaku like your mother."

By now, Akane had met her mother, Konata. Once.

"Or Yuno –"

They both looked at Yuno and indeed, she again had her nose buried in a volume of manga. Even at this age of computers, manga enthusiasts still read printed copies, not files.

"Though I don't know which ones are worse. V*ocaloid fans or otaku," Akane muttered, moving her eyes back to Konami.

Yuno pried her eyes off of the manga and looked at them. "A true otaku only likes 2D. V*caloids are 3D. That's why I don't fancy them."

Akane agreed with Yuno, though she would never admit it.

Still talking about the androids, Konami claimed, "They are not only 3D, they are real people!"

"No, they aren't. I know they got 'human rights' but they are still computers. And robots –"

Konami frowned and interrupted her. "But androids are awesome! Don't you ever dream of being an android, Akane?"

"No …" Akane automatically responded, while in fact now she was thinking of exactly that. Being an android. _"An android doesn't have feelings … they don't feel lonely … they don't feel awkward, clumsy, ugly … they don't get fat …"_

Konami's next line shook her out of deep thought. "Blue and white stripes! I knew it!"

Akane's face turned beet red, because today she was wearing panties exactly like that. Konami eyed her and chuckled; of course she guessed why Akane had become flustered all of sudden. "Aww, Akane. Those kind are one of my favorites. Could you flash 'em for me, just a bit?"

"No! … I mean, I don't even know what you are talking about! And could we drop this subject? It's embarrassing to talk about panties!"

Slowly Akane became aware that Yuno was looking at her. Everyone was looking at them. The entire class had suddenly become very quiet. Especially the boys' seemed now keenly interested in their conversation. Akane gritted her teeth and threw daggers at the nearest boy with her gaze. The boy seemed to shrink in size and quickly turned to look away.

"With bodyguards like you and Tomo-chan around, I feel so safe!" Konami sighed.

"I'm not your bodyguard. If someone's going to beat you up, I'll just stand aside and watch!" Akane muttered.

"Waah, my best friend has abandoned me!" Konami wailed, and pretended to cry.

This was quite enough to distract Akane. "B-best friend?"

Before Konami could come up with anything, Kuroi-sensei entered the class. "Bah, saved by the bell…" she only muttered. Talking in Kuroi-sensei's class was dangerous because the "old lady", as they secretly called her, had an incredible accuracy with thrown objects.

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A couple of weeks had passed.

Another dreary Monday at school was about to start. Except that Akane had started to like the school days more than the even more dready weekends alone in her room at home, nobody to call to – she didn't yet consider even Konami close enough that she could call her just like that – nobody to hang out with, and nothing to do except to study, surf the net or perhaps to watch TV. And draw, of course. Lately she had not drawn much manga. Instead her sketchbooks seemed to be filled with images of her certain classmates. Though, it was impossible to capture the beauty of Yuno on paper. Or the cuteness of Konami. Or the muscles of Tomoe. She wished she had better photographs of them. The snapshots she had secretly taken weren't any good. _"What excuse I could use to get them to pose for me? I can't tell anyone about my hobby…"_ She had never shown any of her drawings to anyone, so she didn't really know if she was any good, in the artistic sense.

Thinking of portraits and poses, Akane suddenly realized she had her hair in twin-tails again. In fact, now she realized she had kept her hair like this every day. She couldn't quite remember why she did that.

Before she sat down, she heard someone calling her name, "Akane!"

As she turned around, Konami jumped onto her and squeezed her into a big, friendly hug.

Akane immediately stiffened, her face turned bright red, and she almost started to hyperventilate. She didn't know what she was supposed to do, so she just stood there, grasping her school bag which fortunately was in front of her and shielded her from this assault on her privacy.

She became aware that nobody had ever hugged her. She didn't even remember her parents ever hugging her. Not even her mother Akira, and not even when she was totally drunk.

The school bag slid from her fingers and thumped onto the floor. Desperately, Akane tried to keep her act together. "What are you doing, Konami?" she hissed.

"I'm hugging my friend, of course. What, don't you get hugged often?"

Akane considered pushing Konami off of her, but somehow her arms didn't seem to have the strength at the moment. "No! I mean, don't hug me in public!"

"You'd rather hug me in privacy?"

"Yes! I mean, no, I don't need any hugs!"

Konami raised her head and stared innocently at Akane's eyes with her big, cute, bright, light indigo eyes. "What? Everyone needs to get a hug now and then! You can't survive without hugs!"

"I have survived nearly sixteen years without –" Akane snapped her mouth shut in mid-sentence, but she already had said too much.

"Yo, Tomoe and Yuno! Come to hug Akane! She has a severe hug deficiency!"

"N-no …" Akane gasped weakly.

Tomoe put her school bag onto her desk and approached. Swiftly, Konami turned her golden-haired friend around and pushed her onto Tomoe's arms. She was so tall that Akane found her face buried into her chest. And Akane found out that for a top athlete, Tomoe had surprisingly large breasts.

Akane was feeling very dizzy when Tomoe finally let her go and handed her over to Yuno. Being of the same height, Yuno's body fit quite perfectly against hers. She also pressed her cheek onto Akane's cheek, held her very close and gently swayed from side to side as she hugged her.

By now, Akane was completely overwhelmed by the feminine tenderness and it was as if she had rose-tinted glasses on though which she was looking at the world. She vaguely registered Yuno letting her go and being embraced by Konami once more. Konami was the shortest of them all and she couldn't quite reach Akane's cheek, so instead she buried her face into Akane's neck.

She realized it was true – she _had_ had a severe case of hug deficiency syndrome. She sniffed and swallowed a tear.

"I'll tell Tomoe and Yuno to hug you every day from now on!" Konami muttered.

"_Isn't __she__ going to hug me every day?" _was all Akane could think.

"Don't worry, I will hug you every day too! Twice! Or more!"

Akane had to clear her throat before she could speak again. "Thank y – I mean, you don't have to do that! It's embarrassing. Everyone in the class is watching."

True enough, everyone in the class was watching at them. And almost invariably they looked jealous.

"Gosh, why are you all hugging _her_? Why not me?" one of the girls groaned, staring at Tomoe.

"Akane, you are tough," Konami muttered against her neck.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you aren't as soft as a girl should be. You should eat more!"

Akane couldn't help smiling a bit, because Konami had practically called her thin. Yet, she groaned "Not again! No, I shouldn't! I'm lean and mean and I want to stay that way."

"But these two won't grow if you don't eat –"

With a reaction speed that surprised even herself, Akane slapped Konami's hands away before she grabbed her breasts, and pushed her away.

"Whoa! You are fast!"

"My, uh, boobs are just fine! Don't you ever try that again! And I don't want them to be any bigger. That causes back pains and all sorts of trouble with sports and stuff. Why don't you grow yours?"

"I can't!" Konami moaned. "No matter how much I eat, not that I usually remember to eat, I just don't gain any weight."

"Good for you," Akane groaned, gritting her teeth. _"Some people just have all the luck in the world."_

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

"Whoa, it's raining really hard!"

Akane raised her head and, now that Konami had said it, she too heard the pounding on the roof. It was Wednesday and they were having a study session at Konami's house. And what an amazing house it was. More like a palace. And Konami's room – more specifically, _one_ of her rooms – were they were now, was on the _third_ floor.

She had been studying with her touchpad. Whether Konami had been studying, she didn't know, because she couldn't see what was going on in her goggles. And Yuno, for the past hour she had just been snoring softly on the floor, her legs under the _kotatsu_.

"Weather site says it's going to rain hard all night and –"

There was a flash of light in the window, and a booming crack of thunder followed almost immediately.

"– and there's a possibility of thunder," Konami finished her sentence. As usual, she had been surfing the net with her goggles all the time they had been studying.

Akane had turned pale and her pen clattered onto the tatami. "I-I forgot to bring an umbrella," she stuttered.

"Are you afraid of thunder, Akane-chan?"

"Don't Akane-chan me! I just, uh, I mean, maybe I really should stay here because I have all the necessary books for tomorrow, and, as I said, I forgot to bring – eep!" her speech ended up in a little scream because there was another loud crack of thunder which rattled the windows.

"Aww. You _are_ afraid of thunder. Don't worry, this house has a lightning arrester. I think. And you can sleep with me if you are afraid. Do you need to call your parents?"

Akane was too distracted and didn't quite get what Konami was saying. "What? No, my parents are both away tonight, again. Mom has a gig in Osaka and dad is flying to US and back."

Despite Akane never felt very close to her parents, and despite they argued a lot, she still felt a sudden sting of loneliness when she thought about the empty house. At least now she had friends … a friend … Konami. Another crack of thunder, and she had to fight against tears. If only she knew this friend well enough to be able to hug her for comfort. No, that wouldn't happen. She couldn't just touch another person like that. She flinched as she realized she had not touched or hugged anyone for years.

"Don't worry, Akane! I am with you. I will even bathe with you so that you don't have to be alone."

"Th-thanks, Konam – wait, what? Hell, no! I will definitely not take a bath with you!"

Nobody had taken a bath _with _Akane since she was a little kid. She had not even been to the beach or the pool. Somehow she had always managed to be sick or have "an excuse" whenever the school had mandatory lessons.

"Our main indoors bath is really big. Even you will fit in there with me. Heck, even Yuno and Ryūji could fit in with us! Or would you rather try the Jacuzzi?"

"N-no, thanks. I'll just –" Akane forgot what she was about to say as there was another flash of lightning. "I-I need to go to … I'll be back!" she gasped, and bolted off.

She found one of the toilets of the house, leaned over the sink, and splashed cold water onto her face. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. "Calm down. It's just thunder and this house is safe," she told herself. "And we are going to have swimming classes anyway. Everyone will wear a swimsuit. And I'm not fat!"

Unbeknownst to her, Kagami was just walking past the door and she heard Akane's rant. She stopped and smiled slightly. _"That Akane girl sounds just like me when I was her age …"_

Not that Kagami had gotten rid of all of her inhibitions and fears either. Still smiling, she leaned onto the wall and waited for her daughter's classmate to come out.

Akane flinched and gasped as she saw Konami's … other mother waiting for her. "G-good evening, Hiiragi-san, I'm sorry to intrude your house!" she gasped, and bowed deeply.

"So you are Akane-chan. Konami has told me a lot about you."

Akane straightened her back and glared at Kagami, forgetting her polite attitude. "Hiiragi-san, please don't believe what she says! She probably lie…exaggerated!"

"Don't worry, she has only praised you."

Kagami decided not to go into details about what kind of "praise" she was talking about. Something that excited Konami and Konata a lot, but Akane wouldn't probably feel the same about it. "I think she likes you a lot. She can't stop talking about you."

Akane turned beet red, gasped, "I-I got to go!", and scurried away.

"Yeah. She's like me," Kagami muttered. _"Uh. I guess I finally have to have 'that' discussion with Konami. If her interests are anything like Konata's…"_

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

Another flash was followed almost immediately by booming sound of thunder. The storm must have been right above them. Akane yelped and covered her ears, and stumbled down the hallway.

Somehow the way to Konami's room, and safety, felt really long. She realized she must have taken a wrong turn at some point.

Eyes wide in fear, she peeked out of a window, trying to see on which side of the building she was now.

There was a brilliant flash of light, but she couldn't hear an explosion, just a kind of white noise. Her reflection in the window shattered into millions of pieces. All of her muscles convulsed painfully, and she felt like she was being lifted off of her feet and thrown into the back wall. Then, everything went black.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes will be extra long in this chapter, because I have to describe all <strong>Characters:<strong>

**Akane Shiraishi**

Parents: Akira Kogami, Minoru Shiraishi (actual biological father unknown)

Akane has golden eyes and a long, golden hair, which she keeps in twin-tails. The hairstyle stuck because Konami said that twin-tails look cute. Akane is slightly taller than the average.

Akane's mother, Akira Kogami, got herself pregnant at a much too young age (although in Japan, within the age of consent) – also, the father of the child was _not_ Minoru Shiraishi. Yet, Shiraishi did eventually marry Akira, and adopted Akane child as his child. They never got any more children, because of complications in the pregnancy which rendered Akira sterile. Akane's parents argue a lot but somehow they stay together. Her parents both work, at irregular hours, so Akane is often alone at home. Akira does minor roles, backing vocals, and TV gigs, while Minoru works as a steward (flight attendant).

Akane Shiraishi is definitely the _tsundere _of the bunch. She's a melancholical girl who often feels lonely. She does well in school, and is excellent with computers, but is annoyed by Konami's seemingly effortless success, because Akane has to work hard for her grades. Akane is also worried about her weight and looks; others tell her that she usually looks scary. "Like an angry Viking goddess," as Konami would say. (She doesn't dare to crack 'Brünhilde' jokes anymore. She tried that … once.)

Akane's hobby is drawing manga, and she's somewhat of an otaku, though she denies it. She secretly draws _yuri_ and _yaoi_, but would be embarrassed to death if anyone finds out.

Akane is the best cook of the four friends, and Konami always begs her to cook for her. Akane always complains that she has no time for cooking. In truth, she's worried about her weight and cooking and baking involves a lot of tasting.

**Konami Izumi**

Parents: Kagami Hiiragi, Konata Izumi

Konami is very short, has lilac hair which reaches her heels, an _ahoge_, and light indigo eyes. She doesn't usually wear her hair in twin-tails, despite what Dare! Epilogue said.

Konami inherited her other mother's height but not all of her traits. To her blue-haired mother's disappointment, Konami is not very interested in anime and manga. She is a fan of the V*caloid androids, though. Konami is very smart, a brilliant student, and loves computers, programming, and the net. She wears a portable 3D-goggles computer, even to class if allowed. Also, she is an incurable joker, both verbal and practical. She's as athletic as her mother(s) but, as Konata, doesn't like exercising that much. Konami is sickeningly cute and adorable, traits which she will shamelessly exploit. Despite the pranks, she is deep down a good and loving person and a loyal friend.

She jokes that her success in studies is thanks to her other, scarier, mother Kagami, who said she'd spank her butt black and blue if she didn't do well at school. She said this on the first day she was going to elementary school, and from there she's been a straight A student.

Like her other mother, Konami is a terrible cook. Or even worse. She can almost literally make pots explode.

Konami doesn't have any sisters or brothers, but there are Yuno and Ryūji who live in the same house – they are relatives, but it's complicated (see Yuno Izumi below). Her closest new friend is Akane.

**Tomoe Tamura**

Parents: Patricia Martin, Hiyori Tamura

Tomoe is six foot tall, blonde, and has blue eyes – so she looks like an "American," except that her eyes have the "Asian" epicanthic fold. She's terrifyingly strong and is in school athletics club. She's interested in all sports; heptathlon is her chosen event but curiously, she also practices modern pentathlon, a very rare sport in Japan – it includes pistol shooting, épéé fencing, swimming, show jumping, and cross-country running.

She isn't the smartest one in the bunch of friends, but very reliable. She's also mellow and cool, and never gets angry at Konami, and only laughs if she's caught by one of her practical jokes.

Surprisingly, Tomoe is a great cook, but she's on a strict diet and cooks only very healthy foods; none of her friends like them.

It is not known how her parents could have gotten her. Hiyori was the one who carried the child. They sometimes joke that they went to see a Finnish witch doctor whose magic enabled Patricia to conceive Hiyori.

Girls in Ryōō High love and admire Tomoe. She gets lots of love letters and even has her own fan club. On the very first day of school, a girl from another class walked up to her and confessed her love (Tomoe didn't return her feelings, though). Tomoe herself is particularly attracted to Yuno and Konami. She's not as close with Akane, but then again, nobody (except perhaps Konami) is.

Tomoe doesn't know it yet, but she was named after Tom of Finland. Her parents are a bit ashamed to tell her that. Her twin little sisters, Mio and Ritsu, were named after certain well-known anime characters from an anime which ran in the 2010's.

**Yuno Izumi**

Parents: Sōjirō Izumi, Yukari Izumi (-Takara)

Since Sōjirō, Konami's grandfather, is Yuno Izumi's father, that makes her Konami's aunt. Or half-aunt and half-cousin. Or something – they aren't exactly sure what kind of relative it makes her, and they often discuss it, trying to figure it out. It's like the old question about the head of a Choko-Koronet.

Yuno is of average height, she has long, pink hair, emerald eyes, and is often considered the best-looking and most feminine of the four friends. Yuno can eat as much as she likes without gaining weight, a fact which annoys Akane to no end.

She has a weird ability to withstand incredible pain without even wincing. She says she does feel the pain, but she just doesn't react to it somehow.

Yuno Izumi has a twin brother **Ryūji**, who is somewhat of a delinquent. He couldn't get into Ryōō High, but goes to another high school. Yuno is very fond of his twin brother, and the feeling is mutual. They call each other or send messages several times every day. Ryūji and Yuno are perhaps a little _too_ fond of each other, which makes Konami crack some "twincest" jokes.

Yuno inherited Sōjirō's otaku traits and loves anime and manga. She's also the laziest student of the four friends – fortunately she's good at cramming at the night before exams. Yuno is also forgetful and sloppy, like her mother, and Konami often has to take care of her. Konami often tricks Akane to take the responsibility.

Deep down, Yuno is the nastiest of the four friends. Not evil or anything, just a bit nasty.

**Other Characters**

**Nanako Kuroi**-sensei is a regular, because she still teaches at Ryōō High. Nicknamed "the Old Steel Wrist," due to her ability to throw pieces of chalk and other things at a terrifying force and accuracy. Kuroi-sensei is now grumpier and more disclipined than fifteen years ago. She married **Matsuri Hiiragi**, who is a famous TV variety show hostess, with a _tsundere_ and _tsukkomi_ imago.

Tomoe Tamura has little twin sisters, **Mio** and **Ritsu**, who were also carried to term by Hiyori. They are both in middle school at the moment. The Tamura twin sisters are viewed as creepy; they may suddenly appear at any time, make a strange or creepy comment, and/or offer their help. They creep out their teachers by always giving the exactly same answers to all tests. They also have the strangest hobbies and activities, ranging from building torture equipment to chemical experiments to necromancy. They are much more Japanese-looking than Tomoe; they have black hair, dark eyes, and always dress identically; gothic is their favorite style. Mio always stands on the right and Ritsu on the left; this is a habit they took because they want people to tell them apart, but they still want to look exactly identical. So, viewed from the front, the order is always Mio, then Ritsu.

**Misao Kusakabe** is a sports teacher at Ryōō High. Against all expectations, she's still together with **Tsukasa Hiiragi** and **Ayano Minegishi**, and the trio lives together. Tsukasa works as a nurse (see below), while Ayano is a tea ceremony consultant (or assistant consultant – it takes, like, eighty years to become a _real_ expert).

**Miyuki Miyamoto** (Takara-Izumi), a distinguished gynecologist, married another doctor, Nobusuke Miyamoto. They have several children. Miyuki is the "family doctor" for Hiiragi, Izumi, Takara, Tamura, and Shiraishi families, so whenever they have medical problems they visit her practice or she (even) makes a house call. Tsukasa Hiiragi works as a nurse at Miyuki's practice.

**Konata** and **Kagami**, parents of Konami, are still together, and they are still famous in all of Japan, as the first same-sex married couple of the country. When Japan eventually changed its marriage laws, they renewed their vows, as they were given the honor to be the first couple to officially marry in Japan. They are filthy rich, but their daughter wasn't spoiled thanks to Kagami, who keeps a rather strict discipline. But their daughter is too adorable if she wants to, and sometimes even Kagami can't stop herself from pampering her.

**S****ōjirō**** Izumi** and **Yukari Izumi-Takara** are still together, but they are happy that Yuno and Ryūji are soon going to fly off their nest and they will be able to retire in peace.


	2. Shards

**Dare! the Next Generation: Chapter 2: Shards**

This is the weird sequel of Lucky Star: Truth or Dare and Lucky Star: Dare! fics. So I'd better WARN YOU: there are lots of OCs around. All the main characters are OCs. That's because they are the descendants of (some) of the original Lucky Star characters. It's year 2024, and the main characters are just about to begin their first year of high school, at Ryōō High where their parents used to go.

The reason Minami and Yutaka weren't mentioned in first chapter was because I totally forgot about them! :D. Then again, I haven't said anything about Izumi Wakase, Kō Yasaka, Hikaru Sakuraba-sensei, Fuyuki Amahara, Inori Hiiragi – and several other less known characters. Don't worry, they all will be mentioned at some point. Last chapter was also named "Fragments" because I didn't yet even know what this story is about and that's what it basically was, little unconnected scenes I had came up with after creating the characters.

I also forgot to set the genre. I'll set it later, because it will be a surprise.

I don't own Lucky Star (nor the V*caloids).

* * *

><p>First thing Akane saw was Konami's saucer-wide eyes and deathly pale face. She found herself lying on Konami's arms. Somehow there was wind and rain inside, and her bum felt like it was on a bed of nails, but she was on Konami's arms and everything was okay. She tried to smile at Konami, but it probably looked more like a stupid grin than a smile. But she didn't care.<p>

Akane thought Konami looked more shocked than she herself felt. Apart from some stinging here and there, she felt completely fine. "Hey Konami, can I move my butt off of this bed of nails?"

Konami quite seem to catch what she said. She answered, "You were struck by lightning!"

"Oh?" was all Akane could say. She didn't feel like she had been struck by lightning. Not that she knew what that was supposed to feel like, anyway. She shifted a bit, trying to move her bottom off of the bed of nails. She heard a crackling sound and realized that she was actually sitting in a pile of broken glass, not on a bed of nails.

Akane looked around and saw a broken window. Wind and rain came through, and her face was hit with another sprinkle of cold water. It didn't feel bad, more like refreshing. She turned her face back and, to Konami's surprise, hugged her.

She didn't see Konami's parents, who had run upstairs in panic.

"You promised to hug me every day…" Akane whispered.

But Konami wanted to talk about something else. "Are you okay? Are you burned anywhere?"

"I don't think so. Could I move away from this pile of broken glass?"

"What? Oh, yes! I didn't realize …" Konami gasped, and started to help her up.

Akane noticed that Konami was acting a bit odd, but maybe it was understandable in such a situation. Konami's parents rushed to aid her, and started barraging them with questions.

"I'll call 911!" Kagami shouted and took out her cell phone.

"No, there's no need! I don't like –" Akane shouted, but changed her tone quickly. "I mean, I'm fine. Just some bits of glass in my, uh, rear. It's nothing."

She _did _hate hospitals and emergency rooms, for some reason. Yet, she didn't remember ever being a patient in either.

"Your panties are bloody," Konami noted.

Akane, recovering quickly, glared at Konami. At which point she had looked at her panties? She was wearing trousers.

"Okay, but let me at least call Miyuki?" Kagami asked. "She's our family doctor and our old classmate. She won't send you to ER or hospital if you don't want to."

"O-okay…" Akane said, not quite convinced.

"Hello, Miyuki? Our daughter's classmate was struck by lightning," Kagami said. From the phone, they heard someone spluttering something.

"No, she is breathing just fine. She is awake and doesn't even have any burns," Kagami explained. "However, she fell into broken glass with her rear and says she has shards. What should we do? – Ah – Okay. You'll come here later? Thanks, Miyuki. See you then."

"Miyuki says we should remove all shards that can be easily removed, clean the wounds and cover them. She'll be here later and see if anything else needs to be done," Kagami explained to the others.

"Right-o!" Konata exclaimed. Now that Akane saw Konata and Konami side by side, she was amazed how similar they looked. Yet Konata was supposed to be at least sixteen years older than Konami. But she looked almost as young as her. Only a few gray hairs among the blue, and very fine creases around Konata's eyes and mouth hinted of her true age. "I've got a pair of tweezers and disinfectant in my third bathroom over there. Oh, and the massage table is also there, so we can use it for the operation."

"_We_?" Kagami asked empathetically, and raised an eyebrow. "There's definitely no _we_ in this. _I_ will help Akane-chan. You two stay away."

"What? Why?" Konata asked, looking quite disappointed.

"I will not have you ogling Akane's bare bottom!" Kagami stated the reason.

"Why is it okay for _you_ to get to do that, then?" Konata and Konami both groaned.

"Because I will _not_ ogle at her! Like you two would. Heck, you two would not think twice of taking photographs or something!" Kagami yelled. "Now, scram! I will handle this."

Both the mother and the daughter pouted and muttered something about unfairness and baseless accusations, and started walking towards the kitchen. Kagami took Akane's hand and walked her up the hallway to Konata's "third bathroom".

Akane's jaw fell open when she saw the room. It was a Wester-style bathroom, but it was more like a spa than just a bathroom. Indeed, there was a gray massage table, a very large Jacuzzi, showers, and a glass door, behind which Akane could see a room with wooden walls and benches.

Kagami took her inside, closed and locked the door, and commanded,"Take off your pants and lie on the massage table, face down, while I find the necessary things."

Akane, of course, turned beet red, and just stood there, looking at the floor.

"It's okay. I have seen plenty of bare bottoms in my time. So there's nothing new for me to see. Take your time," Kagami said, ruffled Akane's head, and started to rummage through the closets and cupboards.

Hesitantly, Akane untied the waist string of her orange harem pants, and pulled them down. She turned pale as she saw blood on the pants. She didn't even want to look at her white laced panties after that, so she just took them and her rainbow striped socks off and rolled them into a bundle with the pants.

The situation was embarrassing and awkward, so she tried to think of something to talk about as she lied down. So, she asked, "Hiiragi-san, what is that wooden room behind the glass door?"

Kagami's voice came out of one of the cupboards where she was looking for the desinfectant. "You can call me Kagami. That's a Finnish Sauna. Sort of a steam room. Miyuki used to have one at her home. We even went to Finland a couple of times and visited a genuine one. Ah! Tweezers, bandages, plaster, and disinfectant. We can begin. And Konata, stop trying to pick the lock!" her last sentence came out as a shout. There was a sound of running feet from behind the door. I sounded like there were two persons running away.

"Those two … such a nuisance!" Kagami groaned.

An awkward silence followed. Akane turned her head and saw Kagami staring at her bare bottom, her cheeks slightly blushed. Kagami's cheeks, that is, not her cheeks.

"Hiiragi-san!" Akane groaned.

"Oops, sorry!" Kagami gasped, and chuckled a bit. "Ahem. Maybe we should get serious."

"Hiiragi-san!" Akane groaned again. "You said you weren't going to ogle my bum!"

"I'm not!" Kagami claimed. Then she remembered that she was the responsible adult. "I am just removing the broken glass, and that's all. Just lie still."

Kagami put the other things on the side table, took tweezers into her left hand and a cup to the other, and walked over to Akane. While Kagami had decided to be a responsible adult, she couldn't help admiring this firm young pair of buttocks. She smiled when she noticed that Akane was a true blonde even down there.

Anyway, there indeed were several small shards of glass stuck into these two delicious mounds. She picked one in between the tweezers. As she pulled the tweezers slipped off and made a little snapping sound. "Ouch," Akane gasped.

"Sorry. These are tighter than I thought. I mean, the shards of glass, stuck tighter!" Kagami quickly corrected. Both of their cheeks were now blushing brightly. On their faces, that is.

She took hold of the shard again, this time holding the tweezers more firmly, and pulled. This time the shard came off and she dropped it into the cup.

Akane felt a little sting, but then it felt good, like the feeling when a splinter is removed from the skin.

"Hiiragi-san … Kagami, I mean … so you like girls?" Akane asked. "I mean, in general! I didn't mean to imply that you, ouch –"

Kagami chuckled, then forced herself to turn serious. She was enjoying this task a little too much. "I know you didn't mean … uh, whatever you thought I was thinking, about you."

That came out a bit wrong, but she decided not to elaborate on that. "But yes, I obviously like girls. Women. Not men. I – I think it began even before I met Konata. So do you like girls, Akane-chan?"

"Me? No, I'm –! Definitely not!" Akane immediately responded. "Ouch!"

She had almost said, "No, I'm normal." That wouldn't have been good considering the situation.

"Lie still, please," Kagami said, trying to catch a particularly difficult shard. "It's okay to like girls."

"Yes, but I don't like girls!" Akane insisted. "Anyway, I noticed Konami – oww! – and her mother are very similar," she said, trying to change the subject. She had already forgotten that she was the one who started it.

"They are, but Konata is a diehard otaku. Konami isn't, thank goodness. Otakus tend to have poor grades at school."

"But didn't Konata become so rich because she was a famous otaku – ouch!" the question ended with a gasp, as another, large shard was removed.

"Yes, but that was just dumb luck. You shouldn't rely on dumb luck but work hard."

"I know. Ow! And I work very hard. Konami doesn't work at all – ouch! – and she gets straight A's!" Akane complained.

"I suspect she actually does work hard. In her own way. She surfs the net all her waking hours and probably learns all sorts of things. There's Wikipedia and so on, as you know."

That was something Akane wouldn't be able to do. If she started reading Wikipedia, she always got lost into sea of information and found herself reading something totally useless at the end.

"Okay, I think I got almost all of them off. Miyuki can handle the rest –" Kagami managed to stop before words 'of your bum'.

"Thank you, Hiiragi-san," Akane muttered.

She was about to touch her aching bottom, but Kagami grabbed her hand.

"Don't touch it. And don't get up just yet. I'll disinfect the wounds and tape bandages over them. This might sting a bit."

Indeed, it did stung. So much that Akane wanted to cry and scream, but she gritted her teeth and took it like a woman.

Finally it was over. Akane got up, yelped, and covered herself because Kagami had forgotten to look away. Another moment of awkward silence followed, as neither of them could think of anything to say. Kagami quickly turned around and started to rearrange things.

Akane cleared her throat. "T-thank you for, cleaning my – I mean, fixing – uh, thank you, Hiiragi-san!"

Kagami burst into chuckles. "This was, well, weird. Let's keep this a secret, okay?"

"With Konat- … Izumi-san and Konami around?"

"Oh. Right."

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

Next day at school, they told Tomoe and Yuno what had happened. Strangely, it was Akane who told the story. Konami was mostly quiet and only chirped in five or six times when she thought there was a hilarious detail to be added.

Akane knew there was nothing she could do. If she didn't tell the story, Konami would tell it. Or she could post it into the net, or something worse. Besides, Yuno needed to hear it too, she had slept through the entire thunderstorm, the accident, and what had happened afterwards.

She also told them about visiting Miyuki's clinic late that night, and that while doctor Miyuki was very professional and skilled, her lilac-haired nurse seemed to have been half-asleep and bumbled with things all the time. It turned out she didn't need any stitches and that if there were any glass shards left, they would come out by themselves.

"Konami, all this time you have seemed more shocked than me," Akane concluded.

"Yeah … well … it was a shock, I thought you had died, or something," was Konami's subdued response.

Akane raised an eyebrow. She still thought Konami was acting a bit odd. Normally she would have been joking about it already, if she knew Konami at all. She shrugged her shoulders and forgot about it.

"Right. Now that that's done with, let's get to serious business," Konami concluded. "Tomoe, do you have the latest bunch?"

"Sure, I do," Tomoe said, and pulled a pile of letters from her bag. "These are from the past two weeks. We might have to process them every week from now on, it's escalating."

Konami's eyes were shining behind the goggles as she received the correspondence.

"What's this?" Akane asked. "What are you two up to?"

"These are the love letters Tomo-chan has received past two weeks. I promised to scan, OCR, read, catalogue, and arrange them. I also give ratings so that she doesn't have to read the worst ones."

"Mind you, I do read all of them, but I pay more attention to those which have a high rating," Tomoe explained.

"Konami! How can you read other people's love letters! They are private!" Akane groaned.

"But Tomo-chan is so busy with the athletics club and stuff. She doesn't have time to go through these," Konami explained while she was opening the first one. It was in a pink envelope which had hearts and stickers of Hell* Kitt*. Konami remembered something and held the letter under her nose for a moment. "Yech. I wish she wouldn't perfume the letters. Not with patchouli, anyway."

"She? Is that written by a girl? No – that was a silly question. A letter like that couldn't be written by a boy," Akane muttered.

"You would be surprised," Konami said, and winked an eye. "But this one is a girl. Ninety percent of them are."

Akane sighed deeply, and took out her touchpad. She didn't want to hear any more about it.

"Why don't I ever get a single love letter from anyone? Why doesn't anyone love me? Am I destined to spend my life all alone."

"Konami!" Akane groaned. "Don't insert a weird narrative!"

They didn't notice Yuno peeking over her volume of manga with an evil glint in her eye.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

"Konami, can I talk you for a moment?"

Konami, who had just come home from school, turned around. It was her mother Kagami, looking serious. Not that there was anything unusual in her looking serious, that was the way she usually was. "Sure, mom."

"Let's go into this room –" Kagami opened a door and found a little Western-style living room with antique furniture. "I didn't even remember this room. This house has too many rooms! Anyway, let's sit down."

"This sounds serious," Konami commented, as they sat down on rococo chairs.

Kagami cleared her throat. Slightly blushing, she started talking. "You know, my daughter, how bees collect nectar from flowers. Pollen gets stuck into their hair and they take the pollen to another flower which is then pollinated … conceived."

This Konami knew, but she didn't seem to get the relevance of this entomology lesson. "Uh, what?"

Kagami shifted uneasily on the chair and continued, "I mean, uh, we have to talk about the facts of life. Namely, about relationships with other people."

Konami's face brightened. "Don't worry, mom, I've got lots of new friends at high school! Not just Akane."

"No! No, I mean … erm … intimate relationships."

Kagami was almost whispering and her face had turned entertainingly deep red. Of course, Konami had realized what this discussion was about almost before Kagami even opened her mouth, but she wanted to milk out all of it, because it was hilarious. Besides, she was recording the entire thing for later amusement (and blackmail).

"But mom, why did you talk about being conceived? Two girls can't conceive each other."

"W-what?"

With tears in her eyes, Konami continued, "Oh, mom, why have you lied to me? Didn't a stork drop me down the chimney as a baby as you said!"

Kagami was too embarrassed to realize even now that Konami had been joking from the very beginning. "Uh, I, … I'm sorry …"

"Mother! Please, do not lie to me anymore! It makes me cry."

Konami covered her eyes. Through her sniffling, she gasped, "Please, mom, tell me, who is my real father? Isn't it finally time to end living in a lie?"

Kagami stood up, grabbed Konami's wrists, and pulled. Konami couldn't hold it down any more; she burst into a huge laughter.

"Konami! I was trying to be serious here!" Kagami groaned.

"And it was so funny!"

But there had been a question Kagami couldn't answer. As far as she knew, Konata was Konami's father, somehow.

And she could even prove it.

"What comes to the question of your father, it is like I have told you. Konata is your father."

Konami stopped laughing. "But that is impossible – oh, by the way, you don't have to lecture me about sex and stuff. Sakuraba-sensei already held advanced classes. We even watched a video of childbirth. It was funny, half of the boys in the class fainted. Anyway –"

"We got DNA tests taken," Kagami interrupted. "You share mine and Konata's genes, not anyone else's."

"Amazing what science can do this day!" Konami gasped. This was one of the few secrets in this household she actually had not known beforehand.

"Well, that was almost sixteen years ago, but somehow it did happen. I can't explain it but …"

"But what?"

"I'm very happy about it …" Kagami whispered, and ruffled Konami's hair.

A genuine tear flowed down Konami's cheek. She wiped it off and chuckled, trying to look cool.

"I can see you share some of my genes too," Kagami whispered.

Discreetly, Konami fiddled with the controls and deleted the video. She almost considered talking about mom what she had seen that night, but ultimately decided not to. She would only try to explain it away. Or worse, she might not believe Konami at all.

First, she needed proof. And most of all she needed to find out what was going on.

* * *

><p>See the Author Notes at the end of the first chapter for character descriptions and about what happened to the original characters after Dare! story.<p>

Did you notice what Akane was wearing? Her fashion sense is not very good. Someone will teach her.

**Minami Iwasaki **and **Yutaka Kobayakawa**: unfortunately they did _not_ stay together. Yutaka dumped Minami after they both went to different colleges (I might tell more about it later) and they both found someone else. They are still friends, though.


	3. Big Red Heart

**Dare! the Next Generation: Chapter 3: Big Red Heart**

This is the sequel of Lucky Star: Truth or Dare and Lucky Star: Dare! fics. So I'd better WARN YOU: there are lots of OCs around. All the main characters are OCs. That's because they are the descendants of (some) of the original Lucky Star characters. It's year 2024, and the main characters are just about to begin their first year of high school, at Ryōō High where their parents used to go.

I forgot to set the genre. I'll set it later, because it will be a surprise.

I don't own Lucky Star (nor the V*caloids).

* * *

><p>Humming a song, Akane opened the school door and walked in. She flinched as she realized she had been humming a song. She never did that! And it was an embarrassing song, too. Some bubbly, sugary, denpa J-Pop hit of the day. Also, she had had a stupid smile, which she wiped off instantly. <em>"What's wrong with me? Me, being happy about coming to school. I must be sick."<em>

While taking her shoes off, Akane tried to think of bad things to get into the proper mood. Swimming tests next week. Art class where they did everything _except_ drawing in ink. Glass shards in her bum. Though her rear had completely healed now, two weeks after the incident. Strangely, she never even had any problems sitting down afterwards.

But she forgot all about that instantly, froze, and turned pale as she opened her shoe locker. The shoes in her hand fell onto the floor. Quickly, she looked around, but thankfully nobody else was here yet. She pinched the letter from the corner, not really even wanting to touch it.

Maybe it was just an innocent note?

No, she wouldn't be that lucky. It was blatantly obviously a love letter. Big, red heart drawn on it. "To Akane," clearly written in the center of the heart, and "From a Secret Admirer," below it. She didn't recognize the handwriting. She knew the incredibly messy handwriting of Konami, the halting kanji of Tomo-chan, and the neat, flowing script of Yuno, but this was different from all of those. "Why would they send me a love letter, anyway," she muttered, and slipped it into her bag. She wasn't going to read it now. In fact she wasn't going to read it at all. _"It's probably a mistake. It's for some other Akane. I think there was one Akane among the third-years,"_ she told herself.

Still, this thing – her first love letter ever – completely messed up her head. She had trouble finding the classroom. She was almost hyperventilating when she did. She slumped down onto her seat, closed her eyes, and tried to think of something else. But all she could see in her mind was this cursed letter. The big, red heart, which she now saw beating in her mind. There was some boy somewhere who had a crush on her! On _her!_ Akane Shiraishi. Her response would absolutely, certainly, be a strict no. She could never be with someone as strange as having a crush on _her_!

Or maybe it was a girl.

Akane shivered. Now, that would be even stranger. What kind of girl would _that_ be?

"Akane, you look terrible," Konami's voice said.

Akane opened her eyes and saw Konami staring at her at the distance of approximately one-half of an inch.

Normally, she would have smacked her or something, but now she didn't even flinch. "Gee, thanks, Konami" – she drew a deep breath and exhaled, hyperventilating again – "but get off my face. I'm fine."

"No, there's something wrong!" Konami claimed. "You were blushing and now you are pale again. And your breathing is all weird. And you hit your forehead into the door when you came in. I must take you to the school nurse!"

At the moment Akane didn't even remember hitting her head. "Did I?"

Konami grabbed her hand and yanked her up. "Let's go."

Their math teacher was just entering the class. "Yo, sensei! Akane is sick, I must take her to the nurse's office!"

Before the teacher even had time to open his mouth, Konami left the classroom, dragging Akane with her. "No, wait – my bag – I am not sick – we can't skip –" she stuttered, as they were flying down the corridor.

"Wait a minute! You just wanted to skip the math class!" Akane managed to groan at some point.

"Yeah, but you know me, it's boring. I know all that kid's stuff already."

Akane rolled her eyes. Though, Konami could even have been serious. Seemingly effortlessly she got a perfect score of 100 points in every math test.

Konami was still holding her hand. Of course, because she had to drag her along. "You don't need to hold my hand …" Akane gasped.

"Yes, I have to. You'll tumble down the stairs or something in that condition."

Akane submitted and let Konami drag her into the nurse's office. Except for the compulsory check-up, she had avoided the place. Something in places like that made her feel very uneasy. Hospitals were the worst, though.

Without knocking, Konami burst, yanking Akane in when she made her last, weak struggle against it.

"Konami Izumi. You are as bad as your mother," nurse Fuyuki Amahara sighed. "How many times I have told you to knock?"

"Sixteen times!" Konami chirped. She wasn't actually that sure about the number, but it was probably close. "Greetings from mom and mom, by the way. You haven't visited us for a while."

As she was talking, Konami lead Akane to the bed and pushed her onto it. "Take your shoes off and lie down," she commanded.

"But I was at the party two weeks ago," nurse Amahara reminded.

"And some party it was! I recorde—I mean, I heard all sorts of fun things that happened –"

Akane interrupted them. "Excuse me? Konami, you know Amahara-sensei? That's nice, but did you drag me here just so that you could have a chat –"

"Oh! Sorry, Akane, I forgot. This here is Akane Shiraishi, my classmate. She's sick."

Nurse Amahara took her touchpad and fiddled with it. "A-ha. Akane Shiraishi … interesting. SPCP. That's why I remembered you."

"Whoa! That sounds serious. What is it, doctor? Will she live?" Konami gasped, squeezing Akane's hand even tighter.

"I'm not a doctor … well, I am, actually, but don't have to call me that. SPCP is a Special Payment Class Patient. That means, you have a private doctor and I should consult him or her before prescribing medication or treatment," nurse Amahara explained. "They have forgotten to add the name, though. I only have a netphone number in here…"

"What?" both of the girls said, in unison.

Nurse Amahara explained again what she had just said, but it still didn't make any sense. Akane and Konami looked at each other, and then back at nurse Amahara.

"Never heard of such a thing," Konami said. "It is barely mentioned in the net too," she added. Several columns of text could be seen scrolling down in her goggles.

"I _myself_ haven't heard of this!" Akane groaned. "I don't remember having a health examination before school. Not by a private doctor. Not by any sort of a doctor! Besides, our family couldn't even afford a private doctor!"

"Weird," nurse Amahara said. "Maybe you really are sick. How long have you had trouble with your memory?"

"I … don't."

"Well, I haven't noticed anything wrong with her memory," Konami claimed. "This morning, she hit the class door when she came in. She was alternatively blushing and pale, and was breathing heavily. Oh, and she did forgot hitting the door."

Konami pressed her palm on Akane's forehead. "She doesn't have a fever, I think."

Akane slapped her hand away. "I do remember that! And it wasn't like I hit my head hard. Didn't even leave a bump, see?"

"I'd better do a basic check-up. Take off your shirt. Konami, wait outside," nurse Amahara commanded.

"No –" Akane started, but then she stopped, because it would have sounded weird if she had said that she didn't want Konami to leave. And this thought made her think of the love letter again, which made her instantly blush again.

Nurse Amahara smiled knowingly. "You want her to stay?"

"… yes," Akane muttered quietly. It was ridiculously embarrassing, but that couldn't be helped.

"Aww," Konami chirped, and squeezed her hand a bit. She had been holding her hand all this time. In this place, Akane didn't mind it at all. It wasn't a hospital but it made her nervous. Also, now she started to think about needles and scalpels and things and shivered a bit.

"You've got to let go of her hand for a moment. Otherwise she can't take her shirt off," nurse Amahara noted. "Oh, you can leave your bra on."

"Darn," Konami muttered. Well, at least she could ogle at half-dressed Akane. Who realized Konami was staring, but she was too nervous to care.

The nurse listened to Akane's heart and breathing with a digital stethoscope, got her temperature from her ear, tried her reflexes with a rubber hammer – some things would never change – and finally measured her blood pressure with the 2020's automatic cuff. All of this barely took two minutes.

"Everything so far is perfectly normal. Normally, I'd draw some blood –"

Akane turned pale and squeezed Konami's hand painfully.

Nurse Amahara quickly added, "But I can't do that without calling your doctor. And I don't think it's necessary. You are perfectly healthy. Physically, that is."

She checked her touchpad again. "Oh, Doctor Miyamoto here says you had a bit of an accident a while ago."

"She got struck by lightning!" Konami announced. She looked proud.

Nurse Amahara raised her eyebrows and took another look at the touchpad. "Oh, looks like she did. Well, it must not have been a direct hit."

"But it was," Konami claimed. "The insurance guys looked at the damage. They said it was definitely a direct hit. Right inside, through the window. Exactly at the place where Akane was standing."

Nurse shook her head. "Direct strike is usually fatal. Akane would have gotten serious muscle and nerve damage. Possibly a cardiac arrest."

Both girls just stared at her.

Nurse Amahara smiled. "So, you were lucky not to be injured, then. Just rest here for a while and calm down. And, Konami –"

"I'll stay here with her!" Konami exclaimed, not letting go of Akane's hand.

"Very well."

Nurse drew the curtain around their bed and returned back to her desk to do more 'paperwork'.

Konami sat down on the bed beside Akane. For a long while, neither of them said anything, having lots to think about.

Finally, Konami whispered, "You sure are a mystery, Akane. Each new twist just adds another question. But don't worry, I'll help you! Together we will find out the truth …"

Konami didn't specify which truth. Again, she remembered what she had seen. The little research she had done on it so far only added to that mystery.

"Truth? Oh, about this medical thing," Akane muttered. She leaned closer to Konami, and lowered her voice to be sure nurse Amahara wouldn't hear it. "The truth is … I was so flustered this morning was because … I found a letter in my shoe locker."

"A love letter!" Konami gasped.

"Ssssh!" Akane hissed. "Yes, a love letter. Probably. I haven't read it yet."

"We have to read it!"

"_We?_" Akane groaned. Actually, she wouldn't mind Konami reading the letter. In fact, she wanted her to handle it. To scan, catalogue, and trivialize it, like she did with Tomoe's letters. To make it go away. "Okay, okay. You can read it too. And whatever it might say, I'm not interested. I have more important things in my life than, uh, love."

"What? What is more important than love?" Konami gasped, looking shocked.

"School, you dummy."

"Oh, that. Piece of cake."

"Don't talk about cake. I'm on a diet."

"But I like girls with something to grab on."

The conversation was getting far too weird. Fortunately nurse Amahara interrupted them; she drew the curtain open, and said, "You two, back to class. Chop chop!"

At the door, Konami turned around. "Uh, Amahara-sensei?"

"Yes?" nurse asked, absent-mindedly; she was making notes into her touchpad.

Konami hesitated, opened her mouth and almost started talking, but decided otherwise. After hearing of this 'private doctor' arrangement, she just couldn't trust her with this. Not now.

"… sorry, it's nothing. Bye," Konami said, and ran after Akane.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

When they came back, the math teacher was just leaving the classroom.

"Oh. The class is just ending. I guess we missed the entire class," Konami noted.

Akane glared at her. "You planned this from the very beginning, didn't you?"

Konami only grinned.

Akane slumped down onto her seat. Now she didn't even want to touch her bag. Because _it_ was probably still inside there. Unless someone had stolen it. She almost hoped someone had. The filthy letter. Or was it filthy? What on earth it could be about? Maybe it wasn't a love letter after all. Yeah, sure, it was completely innocent letter or about something completely different. With a great big red heart on it.

Akane banged her head onto the desk and groaned. She was getting insatiably curious, but at the same time, she wanted to burn the letter without ever even opening it.

Slowly, she became aware of Konami standing beside her. She opened her eyes and glared at her. "What now?"

Konami was bursting with excitement. "Can I see it? I want to see it! I can't wait!"

Oh yeah, she promised that Konami got to read it. Akane looked around. Most of the students had left because it was recess, and there were nobody on this side of the classroom. Sighing, she reached into her bag and pulled the letter out, trying to touch it as little as possible. "You haven't even opened it yet?" Konami asked.

"Like I said, I don't even care about it. Go ahead."

Chuckling to herself, Konami tore the envelope open and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "Ahem," Konami cleared her throat.

"No! Don't read it aloud! I don't want to hear," Akane gasped.

But she couldn't resist peeking at Konami's face when she was reading it. She giggled at some parts, but by the end she blushed. "Whoa!"

Of course, this made Akane insatiably curious. With a herculean effort, she pretended not to care and pulled out her touchpad, for asking the notes of this class.

"Nice. Though, this must be one of her first. Like a virgin. I'll give this … 3 out of 5!" Konami commented. "Starts quite shy and awkward, but gets bolder at the end. I like that part about the tongues –"

"Did you say, _her_?" Akane put her touchpad town, snatched the letter off of Konami's hands and started to read it. True enough, it was from some girl. Who said she admired Akane, because she was always so cool, and how she had that beautiful golden hair and that she was so smart and had made so many friends. "Eh?"

The rest of the letter was about what this girl wanted to do with Akane when they would finally get together. It wasn't _too_ explicit, fortunately. Cuddling, kissing, French kissing …

"I think this is a fake," Akane concluded.

"Maybe. All of Tomo-chan's are genuine, and this does feel wrong, somehow. But who would send you a fake one, and why?"

"To embarrass me, of course. To tease. Like the times they hid my bag, let the air out of my bicycle wheels, threw food at me in the canteen –" Akane realized she had said too much and snapped her mouth shut.

Konami was silent for a whole three seconds. "Not at this school, I presume? In the past?"

"Yeah … but let's forget that for now. Can we find out who wrote this?"

"Sure. Clever how you handled the envelope. I too avoided holding it at the places you'd normally touch. So we can get fingerprints. Then we can compare … hm, no, we can't. We don't have the fingerprints of everyone at this school. I guess we can forget that line of investigation."

Akane didn't bother to tell her why she had handled the envelope the way she did.

"And the handwriting. I think I have seen this handwriting before!"

"You have? Can you remember where?"

"No, not right now. You know we don't see much handwriting these days, after elementary school."

The next class was about to start, so Konami put the letter inside her desk before others came in.

Yuno, following Tomoe, came in and scowled at them. But she forced a smile on her face again before anyone noticed, and walked up to them. "What happened to you two? Where were you?"

"Akane was seriously ill just as the math class was about to begin, so I had to take her to nurse's office," Konami explained.

"No, I wasn't. Konami just wanted to skip class and made up this excuse," Akane corrected her.

Konami ignored her and continued, "Also, there's big news! Akane got a –"

"Stop! I don't want everyone to hear about it. Not yet, anyway," Akane interrupted. "Besides, teacher is here."

Indeed, Sakuraba-sensei had walked into the classroom silently, as she usually did. Students ran around, trying to find their own seats, and class rep – a tall, black-haired girl they didn't know very well yet – tried to restore order so that they could bow at the teacher. Not that this teacher cared. She sat down, tilted her chair backwards, and lifted her feet onto the table. The students already know her; she had been teaching here for more than twenty years. Sakuraba-sensei was one of the seniors, along with Kuroi-sensei and nurse Amahara. Despite her laid-back style, Sakuraba-sensei was very serious about her subject, so they got something else than love letters to think about.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

Lunch and the rest of the day went by relatively quietly. Since Akane had forbidden Konami to talk about the interesting things, they talked mostly about school.

Only when the bell rang indicating the end of the school day, Konami pledged Akane, "So. Can I please tell them now? I'm going to explode!"

Akane looked around, and waited for the other students, aside from Yuno and Tomoe, to leave before she answered. "Okay. You can. But don't raise your voice too much."

Konami took out the letter from her desk. "Akane got this love letter this morning!"

"Why are you holding it?" Tomoe asked. "Wait, of course you are. You handle all the love letters," she answered her own question.

"Sadly, not all of them. Just yours and Akane's. Maybe Yuno's too, if you'd like me to?" Konami asked Yuno.

"No! Love letters shouldn't be read by anyone else!" Yuno exclaimed. The others took a puzzled look at her. She wasn't usually that intensive about anything. "Why did you give the letter to _her_, Akane-chan?"

It was hard to talk about this, but Akane decided that she would eventually have to start talking about things, if she wanted to get – and keep – friends. "Because, uh, I didn't even want to get a love letter. I'm not interested in that stuff. School is more important."

"Akane, can I show the letter to them? Not for reading, but the handwriting."

"I guess … it's not like it is a secret anymore."

Konata held the letter towards Yuno and Tomoe. "Look. Can either of you recognize this handwriting? I think I have seen it somewhere, but I can't remember where."

Akane was fiddling with the envelope, not caring about fingerprints any more. She smelled the letter, but it wasn't perfumed. She peeked inside, but there was nothing else in there.

Both Yuno and Tomoe shook their heads. "I can't even read handwriting these days. It's not like we have to, when everything is either printed or on the touchpad," Tomoe said.

As Akane was putting the envelope away, she realized she had seen something. Something that was very hard to notice. She took the envelope again and picked up something from the inside. It was a hair. A long, pink hair.

"The writer has pink hair," she noted.

All the blood escaped from Yuno's face and she stumbled backwards, leaning onto a desk.

"Yuno!" Konami gasped.

They were stunned by this sudden revelation. Finally, Akane managed to gasp, "Yuno, did you write this? Really?"

Yuno dropped onto her knees and started to cry. "I'm sorry! I did it! I shouldn't have, but I did!"

"But why? Why did you do it?" Akane almost shouted.

"You must know that it's a fake letter! I don't want to … to do those things with you. It's just …" Yuno couldn't continue. Konami took a tissue and handed it to Yuno. She clambered up, slumped down onto a chair, and blew her nose noisily. As she was trying to hand the tissue back, Konami just motioned her to keep it.

"You are always with Konami. I wanted you to start thinking about someone else … but it didn't work! You spent even more time with her! You sat with her at nurse's office and probably held her hand the entire time," Yuno moaned.

Akane blushed as she again realized that Konami _had_ held her hand the entire time in there.

"Aww. Don't worry, Yuno, you will always be my favorite great-aunt-cousin-half-sister-in-law … or whatever we are. And you are always welcome to hang around with me and Akane. Except into bed."

Akane glared at Konami, but decided not to comment for now. Comforting Yuno was more important. Of course, she had to tell her that she wasn't angry, and that she forgave her, and all that stuff. In return, Yuno promised, as expected, that she would never do anything like that again.

Yuno explained that she had asked her twin brother Ryūji to write the letter. She dictated it to him.

At the end, they all hugged each other, no friendships had been broken, and everything was fine again.

But Yuno walked out of the classroom behind them, and they didn't see Yuno's expression.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

Before Konami parted with the others, she said, "Now that that's been resolved … listen up, guys. There's something else I need to talk you all about. Not now, I mean. Not today. This is something big. We need a private place."

"Would my house be okay? My parents are away most of the time. And if they are there, they don't care …" Akane gulped and cleared her throat. "Anyway, they are away next weekend. We can meet at Saturday. If you think it's necessary."

"Cool! I can't wait to see your room! I bet you've strewn the floor with dirty panties and stuff!" Konami chirped.

Akane glared at her form under her brow. "If that's what you wanted to talk about, forget it!"

"No, no. Just kidding. I _am_ serious. How about it, Yuno, Tomo-chan?"

Tomoe nodded. "Sure. I've got no evening practice at Saturday, so I can come."

"Of course it's okay," Yuno agreed.

"But bring your touchpads! We all need to study and do our homework anyway," Akane reminded them.

"We'll see about that," Konami muttered. "Some time afternoon? Two, three o'clock? Akane, would you please cook for us?" she pledged, patting her eyelashes at Akane.

"If you insist," Akane sighed. Secretly, she was thrilled to finally have friends visiting her. And that she could cook for them.

Akane made a mental note to clean up her room. Especially the dirty panties lying about.

* * *

><p>See the Author Notes at the end of the first chapter for character descriptions and about what happened to the original characters after Dare! story.<p>

Note: Doctor Miyamoto is Miyuki from the original Lucky Star. She married and got a new surname.

You might have noticed that there's something strange going on. Well, maybe there is! Can you figure it out already? Aside from what Konata _saw_, nearly all the clues have been given. If you write a review, you can tell us what you think is going on.


	4. Verity

**Dare! the Next Generation: Chapter 4: Verity**

This is the weird sequel of Lucky Star: Truth or Dare and Lucky Star: Dare! fics. So I'd better WARN YOU: there are lots of OCs around. All the main characters are OCs. That's because they are the descendants of (some) of the original Lucky Star characters. It's year 2024, and the main characters are high school freshmen, at Ryōō High where their parents used to go.

EXTRA BIG WARNING: At this point, story stops being a slice of life. The happy-go-lucky times of Lucky Star are long past. If you wanted a happy-go-lucky slice of life, don't bother reading any more.

I forgot to set the genre. I'll set it later, because it will be a surprise. Probably soon after this chapter gets published. This is a very, very important chapter.

I don't own Lucky Star (nor the V*caloids).

* * *

><p>Akane shouted a swear word, not that the Japanese language had any decent ones. Besides, she knew she shouldn't be shouting such things even when alone at home. She had cleaned the entire house and prepared a feast for her friends. Having friends come over for the first time ever was stressful.<p>

It would have been better if she could just sit down and rest, but there was no time, because everything had to be perfect. And now she had spoiled the broth by forgetting it on the stove. It looked like there was nothing wrong with it, but she knew the taste would be wrong.

Then, she looked around and laughed, as she realized she didn't even need any miso soup. If the four of them could eat all of this, that would be a miracle. She dumped the failed broth into the drain, washed her hands, walked into the living room and slumped down onto the couch to relax, now that everything was ready.

She woke up with a start when the doorbell rang. Embarrassed of having fallen asleep, she dashed to open the door.

It was Konami behind the door. She just stared at Akane through her goggles, wide-eyed.

"What?" Akane grunted. "Cat took your tongue?"

"Mrowr!" Konami exclaimed, apparently trying to sound like a cat. She kicked her shoes off and walked around Akane. "Boom ba-ba boom!"

Akane swung around and yelled at Konami, "What the hell are you doing? Have you gone mad?"

"I like! Though without underwear, it would have been even –"

Akane screamed and dashed off into her room to put her clothes on. As she often did when she was alone at home, she was wearing just an apron over her underwear, having completely forgotten to dress up.

Chuckling, Konami stopped recording and made sure the video was saved.

A few minutes later Akane came back downstairs fully dressed, pretending that nothing had happened. Meanwhile, Yuno and Tomoe had arrived.

"Hope you don't mind that I let them in," Konami noted.

"No …" Akane muttered, eyeing Konami suspiciously. That was certainly not the thing she minded. But the others didn't crack any jokes, so maybe Konami didn't tell them.

"A nice little house," Yuno commented. "Can you take us to a tour?"

All a bit puzzled, they looked at Yuno. She had the most innocent smile on her face.

Akane looked at Konami and Tomoe, but they didn't comment. "Uh, sure. But there isn't much to see. This whole row house could fit in your lobby."

So she took them to a tour. Downstairs had a kitchen, a living room, a lobby, a toilet, and the bathroom; upstairs had three bedrooms, and half way there Akane realized she had to explain why there were three bedrooms with a single bed in each. She explained her father's room was actually a guest room. Her guests either didn't notice there was no double bed for her parents or politely didn't comment on it.

"And that's all. I told you this is a small place."

"Well, it's very clean and neat," Tomoe said, as they were sitting down at the table in Akane's room.

"Thanks, I spent most of the day cleani – anyway!" Akane quickly changed the subject, because she realized that usually it was the mother of the family who did the cleaning. "Do you want something to drink before dinner? A cup of tea or something?"

"A glass of water would be nice," Tomoe said.

"A melon soda, thank you," was Yuno's request.

"A beer," Konami said without missing a beat.

"Water, melon soda – not sure if we have any – and beer. Okay," Akane muttered. After she had left the room she turned around, burst back in, and yelled at Konami.

"Yeah, yeah. Just water, then," Konami changed her order.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

When Akane came back carrying a tray, she could control herself just long enough to set the tray onto the floor before dying of shame. Figuratively speaking. She staggered backwards and crouched into a corner.

Because while she had been gone, Konami had found one of her sketchbooks. They were all looking at it while Konami turned the pages.

Fortunately that was one of the 'innocent' ones. If Konami had found some of _those_ sketchbooks, Akane would really have died of shame. They were locked away, in an actual metal strongbox in her closet, but that might not have stopped Konami. Now, she only hyperventilated and crouched in the corner, too embarrassed to look at the others.

Konami walked over to her and patted Akane's back, making her flinch. "Hey, Akane, you shouldn't sulk. These are incredibly good."

Yuno, the manga expert, gritted her teeth. She didn't want to tell Akane that these drawings were better than almost anything she had seen.

"They are like photographs," Tomoe noted.

"W-what…? I'm not sulking!" Akane groaned. "I just didn't want anyone to see those. It's so embarrassing! Yes, yes! I draw portraits and manga and stuff. But I'm not an otaku!"

"A true otaku is proud of being an otaku!" Yuno exclaimed.

"I barely watch anime or read manga, so I'm not an otaku," Akane muttered, still in the corner.

Yuno frowned as she saw her own portrait on the next page. It was good. Too good, in fact. While the image depicted her perfect beauty, it had also captured the evil glint in her eyes. The sinister side of her was showing through the gorgeous face, and that wasn't pretty.

Tomoe and Konami didn't seem to realize this, though; they cooed in delight.

Akane had calmed down somewhat. She walked to Konami and snatched the book from her hands. "That's enough. Next time, ask me before touching my private things!"

She threw the sketchbook into her desk drawer and locked it. Then she banged the tray onto the table, spilling some of the drinks. "And here are your drinks! We didn't have a melon soda."

Akane wasn't in the mood for discussion, so she took out her touchpad and started studying. The others were oblivious, instead they kept chatting about various things. Yuno was telling which manga artists she thought were the best. The others couldn't really disagree because they didn't know much about the subject. Then, Konami described her latest programming project, and nobody else understood anything. Next, Tomoe talked about fencing techniques, which went over the others' head. Nevertheless, they seemed to have fun. This didn't exactly help Akane's attempt to study; she could only listen to them and pretend to read.

Of course, it was Akane's stomach which grumbled the first. The others looked at her expectantly.

"Okay, okay. I'll fix the dinner," Akane sighed.

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"Wow," Konami could only say.

"Did you cut the fish yourself?" Yuno gasped.

Akane started to blush. "Yeah … why?"

"That's amazing!" Tomoe yelled. "I can cut fish, but never so neatly."

Akane's face had turned beet red, and she muttered, "I-it's nothing. Just basic stuff. Sashimi, sushi, rice-filled omelet, four different salads, and azuki bean ice cream is in the fridge…sorry about not having miso soup, the broth failed…"

"Broth?" Tomoe asked. "You make the broth yourself as well?"

"O-of course…"

"Don't tell me you even made the ice cream yourself?" Tomoe gasped.

By now Akane was too embarrassed to think straight. "Yes, how else you can get ice cream?" she asked.

As much as Konami tried, she couldn't hold back but burst into laughter. "That's the spirit!" she gasped in between.

"Silly Akane-chan, you can buy ice cream from any market," Yuno said, and patted Akane's back.

"I know that!" Akane groaned.

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"Pwaah! I'm completely stuffed," Konami gasped. She was lying on her back, arms spread, and couldn't move a muscle. The table was now filled with empty bowls.

"How could someone so small eat so much?" Akane wondered.

Weakly, Konami raised her head a bit. "Shows how good your cooking is. It was the best!"

"Yeah, she's like Akane Tendo!" Yuno exclaimed. She knew the others wouldn't recognize this name from a popular manga ages ago.

"I don't know who that is, but the food was excellent. Really good. I can't eat for two days or so to maintain my diet, but it was worth it," Tomoe said. "I can cook, but gladly admit you are a better cook than me."

Akane blushed again, and muttered about something being a total amateur and not really knowing how to cook and that she had looked up all the recipes in the net. But these praises made her all warm inside.

After they had rested half an hour, Konami got up. "Now, Yuno and Tomo-chan, could you take the dishes into the kitchen? And stay there for a while. Maybe wash the dishes, if you can. Because I have something to discuss with Akane, in private. Don't worry, you will hear all about it later."

Akane turned around, and looked at Konami. She looked unusually serious. "What is this big secret?"

Konami shook her head. "Yuno-chan, Tomo-chan?"

Yuno grumbling, and Tomoe looking happy to help, they collected the dishes and started carrying them away.

Konami closed the door behind them.

"A-are you going to confess or something…?" Akane whispered. "Don't do that. We are still in high school and I'm not –"

"No," Konami interrupted. "I wish this was something like that. We'd better sit down."

Akane sat at the table, assuming Konami would sit beside her, but instead she walked around the table and sat down at the opposite of her.

Then, Konami only stared at her eyes, without saying anything. This, naturally, made Akane nervous.

"What?" she groaned.

"Do you think I'm crazy?"

"Yes!" Akane answered empathically.

Konami chuckled nervously. "No, I don't mean it like that. Does it seem like I am hallucinating? Or imagining crazy things?"

Akane thought about this for a while. "No, not really. I don't know what you see in those goggles, but I wouldn't say you are insane."

Konami wasn't wearing her goggles right now, because she had taken them off for eating. "Oh yeah. The goggles," she muttered. Then, she took a deep breath. "This may sound crazy. Remember the night you got hit by lightning?"

Akane shivered. "Yes, except I don't really remember getting hit. Didn't even hear a thing. Something just suddenly threw me backwards, and … that's it."

"I got there maybe a second or two afterwards. And you were all electrified."

"What?"

"I mean, I saw electric currents going up and down and around your body. Like in that old movie, where Luke Skywalker is hit by Emperor Palpatine's force lightning."

Akane _had_ seen those movies, or their sixth revision in 3D, that is. That was a bad, childish trilogy, but it had been groundbreaking in its time. In any case, she knew what Konami meant.

"So this was the big secret. I thought it was something really bad!" Akane was almost laughing in relief.

"Wait. I haven't even started yet."

Now Akane started to become afraid, because Konami looked more serious than she had ever seen her. "Are you sure you weren't just seeing after images of the brilliant light or something?"

"No. I was recording at the time. I have the video."

Konami handed her goggles to Akane. "Just hold them on your eyes, no need to adjust the band."

Konami tapped her touchpad and started the stream.

Akane saw Konami's room at her house, as if she was watching it through Konami's eyes. She heard Konami yell, "Akane! What's taking you so long!" and then it was as she was standing up, going to the door, and then into the hallway. Then, she heard a booming, explosive sound, and a brilliant flash of light, turned around, and saw the broken window and … herself, lying on the ground. And bright blue currents dancing all over her body. Two stumbling steps forward, and she got a very clear look of it. As if the electricity couldn't penetrate her skin. Slowly, the electric currents turned less bright and faded away. Her clothes were smoking a bit here and there, but Akane herself, lying pale and eyes closed on the floor, looked completely unharmed. The recording turned blurry as Konami had been hurrying forward, then the image disappeared and the goggles turned clear.

Slowly, Akane lowered the goggles off of her eyes. "Did you Ph*toshop this? Is this some sort of a prank?"

Konami grabbed Akane's hand and looked her into the eyes. "No! I would never joke about something like this. This is the original video. I didn't do anything to it. And this is exactly the same I saw with my own eyes!"

"Okay, okay. I believe you. But what does it _mean_?"

"As nurse Amahara said, direct strike from lightning is usually fatal. I researched this. Apparently, if someone has a very high 'skin resistance' of some sort, the current will flash around the skin and clothing and into the ground. Of course, this thing has never been observed, not with a real lightning strike hitting a real person."

"I hope you aren't planning to sell that video!"

"Oh! I had not thought of that. It must be worth of a fortune!"

"I absolutely forbid it!"

"Just kidding. I wouldn't do that, not without your permission–"

"And you won't get it!"

Konami sighed. "Anyway. Do you remember ever getting an electric shock?"

Akane thought about it. "No. I don't even seem to get sparks from static electricity, somehow."

"That's what I thought. Because I've been poking your feet and legs with a stun gun under the table. And you didn't even notice."

Konami lifted a device from below the table. It was probably something she had made herself: two wires sticking out of a little black box, which in turn was wired into a large battery. And a button which turned the current on.

"I got instructions from the net and soldered it together myself," Konami explained. "And trust me, this thing is powerful. Like a cattle prod. I tested it on myself and boy, I almost knocked myself out. It hurt like hell."

"Gimme that thing!" Akane hissed, snatched the device off of her hands, poked Konami's upper arm with it, and pressed the button. There was a crackling sound and a sparkle. Konami screamed aloud and fell backwards, jerked and twitched, and then lied still.

Akane's mouth fell open. Then she dropped the weapon and rushed around the table to Konami. "Sorry, I thought you were joking! I thought it was a toy!" she gasped, and lifted Konami onto her arms.

"N-no …" Konami whispered. "I had it set on maximum power…"

Carefully, Akane set Konami back onto the tatami, took the device and poked herself with it, pushing the button several times. She got crackling sounds and even sparkles, but _she didn't feel anything_. No marks appeared on her skin. She tried all her limbs and finally even her face and chest. And the result was the same.

"What _is_ this?"

Konami clambered up and showed her arm to Akane. There was a clear burn mark and even a small blister.

"Sorry. But honestly, I didn't know!"

"Yeah … well, no pain, no gain. And now I proved it to you, didn't I?"

"Yes. I seemingly have …. this strange skin resistance. But you said it happens, didn't you?"

Konami stared at her, with a weird expression. What Akane saw in her eyes was … fear. She was afraid of … what?

"What is it?"

"This is it … I stumbled upon something. I couldn't belive it. But … you remember when we talked about V*caloids?"

"What do those have to do with this –" all Blood drained off of Akane's face when she understood where Konami was getting to.

"Yes. Androids are immune to electric shocks," Konami whispered. "They have to be shielded, otherwise their internal … things would break."

Akane stood up so fast that the entire table topped over to the side. Konami didn't move, she had closed her eyes. Whatever Akane was going to do, she would take it. Maybe she deserved it. Maybe this was all a bad dream and she would wake up after Akane had killed her.

But Akane didn't smash her face in or anything. Konami felt her grab her shoulders and she opened her eyes again. "Impossible!" Akane gasped.

"Yes … it can't be true … but can you explain this?" Konami raised her arm and showed her the burned spot. "I am burned like this, and you are completely unharmed. What else can it be? Do you have any other explanation?"

Konami sniffed, her eyes were filling with tears. "And I didn't know what to do. I thought you knew about this!"

"I didn't! –"

"Yes, of course I see it now. You didn't know! Maybe I shouldn't have said anything! I might have spoiled everything. What will happen now? I'm terrified. The first time in my life I'm really afraid…" Konami hung her head down.

"I still don't believe it. It must be a mistake. There must be some other explanation, somehow!" Akane groaned. "Aargh! I must think of this. I need to be alone for a while!"

"Go downstairs, then? Ask Tomoe and Yuno to come here. I want to tell them the same thing and show them the video. Is that okay?"

"Whatever. They are my friends, I guess. They deserve to know … this fantasy of yours," Akane muttered.

"Akane…I really wish it only was a fantasy. Believe me, I really, really do!" Konami yelled.

Akane nodded and went to the door.

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Two very pale, quiet girls were sitting at the table. What Konami had showed and told them seemed completely crazy, but she had proven it beyond any reasonable doubt. For now, Yuno and Tomoe couldn't think of anything to say.

They heard the door open and saw Konami's eyes widen. She had an expression of genuine horror.

Yuno and Tomoe turned around and saw Akane, holding a large, _sharp,_ kitchen knife in her left hand. Her eyes were bulging and she looked scarier than ever. "It is not true!" she screamed.

"Akane –" Konami gasped.

Akane shouted even louder. "It is NOT TRUE! I will prove it to you! I will prove it to you right here! Even if I have to –"

The others were too shocked to do anything to stop her.

Akane staggered forward, knelt at the table, placed her right hand on it, palm up, lifted the knife above her head, and brought it down with great force, nailing her hand into the table.

Or that's what everyone thought what would happen. Instead, light flashed on a strip of metal as it flew through the air and clinked into the wall, before it fell onto the tatami.

It was the tip of the knife. It had snapped on Akane's palm. There was a wound and even blood on Akane's palm, and she felt the pain, but the knife had not made it through her hand. Any human hand would _definitely_ have been impaled.

Akane dropped the broken knife, said "ouch," and rubbed her palm.

The other three girls were speechless and still frozen in shock.

Konami was the first to regain her senses. She stood up, and with a slightly trembling hand, she picked up the tip of the knife. The sharp tip had actually gone blunt, and bent fourty-five degrees before snapping. Apparently, the knife had met something which was stronger than steel.

Akane hung her head down and breathed deeply. Konami knelt beside her, placed the broken blade onto the table, and took a packet of tissues from her pocket. She took Akane's hand – she didn't resist – and wiped off the blood.

They all stared at the wound. It was only a two or three millimeters deep and an inch long. But the gash had revealed that right under Akane's skin there was another layer. A strange, dark gray metallic-like mesh. Carefully, Konami pulled at Akane's skin and touched the mesh with her finger. It felt soft, warm, yet tough.

They all also saw that her outer "skin", which was _totally_ indistinguishable from human skin, was already healing itself. The membrane over the inner mesh was quickly closing up.

"…so, I proved it," Akane whispered. "I really am a robot."

"No!" Konami suddenly screamed, her voice breaking, and making everyone flinch. "You are not a robot! You are human. You are Akane. Maybe you only have an artificial hand? And the rest is human?"

"No," Akane said quietly. "It's … everywhere. All parts of my body are the same. I can feel it now."

"Amazing. You are an android," Yuno said. Her jaw twitched. "D-don't get me wrong! At first, I disliked you. Maybe I even hated you. I did bad things … but it has all changed now. The drawings and … I love you, Akane. We all love you!"

Yuno burst into tears and wrapped her hands around Akane. Konami buried her face into Akane's neck. And Tomoe wrapped her arms around all the three of them. "Is this the harem route?" Yuno muttered. The others heard that but they didn't quite get it.

Akane didn't resist. If she was a robot, why did she have all these feelings? So much different feelings, at the moment everything at once, so much that she felt she was going to explode. For five minutes, she didn't do anything. She just sat there, hugged by her friends. Yuno's tears flowed down her neckline, which felt a bit uncomfortable, but she didn't care. Her own tears were flowing as well. Her synthetic, simulated, nonhuman, robotic tears. Crocodile tears. The thought made her cry even harder. She couldn't understand how she could hurt this much if she was just a robot.

"My parents. They know. They have to know. They must know! Are they robots as well?" she finally said.

Konami sniffed and wiped her eyes. "Never use that word! You are not a robot. So what if you have an android body? You must have a human brain," Konami speculated.

"My brain hurts," Akane sighed. "Maybe it is a human brain. Maybe not."

"But V*caloids!" Konami gasped. "They are androids … cyborgs. You are the same. Maybe you are destined to become a singer? An idol?"

Akane burst into laughter. "I have never heard anything so ridiculous! If I become an idol, Konami could as well become a sumo wrestler."

The thought of Konami as a sumo wrestler caused all of them burst into a slightly hysterical laughter.

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More to calm herself down and not out of real need, Akane went downstairs and prepared tea for everyone. Doing these everyday things, these _human_ things, comforted her. As if nothing had changed.

As Akane was putting the tray down, her touchpad made a sound. She picked it up and looked at her mail.

"Got mail from both mom and dad. They'll be home tomorrow morning after all. Konami … would you sleep here with me?"

"Oh!" Konami gasped. "It's a big step. Don't you think we are yet a bit too young for that?"

"I just meant a sleepover! Not … _that_!" Akane groaned, though she instantly realized Konami was just kidding. Then, she started laughing. Being able to laugh was great. _"Robots don't laugh, do they?"_

As Akane was pouring tea for Tomoe, she blurted out, "How come you eat and drink just like us, if you are –"

"Yes … that has crossed my mind… like so many other things. I guess I was just built that way," Akane sighed.

"Guys, let's give it a rest. I know you and I have thousands of questions, but Akane doesn't know any more about this than any of us," Konami said.

However, this only created an awkward silence. Quietly, they sipped their tea and ate the checkerboard cookies.

"These cookies are great!" Tomoe finally said. "You made them yourself as well?"

Desperately, Akane tried to join a normal conversation. "Yes. I have the recipe if you want it."

"Sure! That would be great," Tomoe answered. She couldn't think of anything else to say, however, so the awkward silence continued.

There was only the ticking of the wall clock.

Finally, Konami couldn't take it anymore. She bolted up, screamed, and jumped on top of Akane, making her fall backwards.

Akane was taken by surprise. The half-eaten cookie she had been holding flew away. "What the hell are you doing now!" she groaned.

She felt Konami's little fingers in her side and burst into uncontrollable giggles. "Ahahaha! Stop! Stop! That tickles!"

"You are ticklish!" Konami exclaimed.

"Of course – ahahaha! – of course I am! Stop, stop!"

Akane squirmed and turned and rolled around, finally managing to shake Konami off of her. She rolled on top of Konami and tried to tickle her, but Konami only grinned. "I'm not ticklish in there."

"Where you are ticklish, then?" Akane asked, pinning Konami's hands over her head.

"I'm not telling you!" Konami exclaimed. "Anyway, can't you see? You are ticklish!"

"So what – oh!"

Akane let Konami go and sat down. "Yeah. That's odd. Everything is odd. Though, I realize a few things now. My ankle …"

Akane pulled her pant leg up and showed them her shapely ankle. "Look. The first day at school, I sprained this ankle really badly. At least the sound was bad. I expected it to swell up and be all blue and black, but it never did. It does ache a bit, even now."

All of a sudden, Konami punched her arm, rather forcefully.

"Oww! Why did you do that!" Akane screamed, and rubbed her arm.

"You don't get bruises," Konami noted.

Akane glared at her, but then she nodded. "You don't have to experiment on me. But I think that's true. I don't remember getting any bruises anywhere for the past two years."

Yuno crawled around the table, wrapped her arms around Akane, and buried her face into her chest.

"W-what are you doing!" Akane gasped.

"Mm, you smell nice. You smell like a girl …" Yuno muttered.

Akane grabbed Yuno's shoulders and literally threw her away. "Don't do that!"

Yuno lied on her back, with a big smile on her lips. "But you do smell good. And sweaty, sometimes. Also, I have smelled your –"

"Eww!" Akane yelled, interrupting Yuno. "That's it! No more experiments for today. Okay? Go home, you two – unless you want to study. In that case, you can stay a while longer."

So they did try to study again and do their homework. Yet more of the normal, human things.

Konami was groaning and moaning, but Akane had forced her to take out her touchpad.

Yet, is was Akane who started yawning first. _"How come I yawn, anyway? Why do I get tired?"_

Every single one of these perfectly normal things now seemed strange. She could feel pain. She smelled. She could get injuries, which could ache.

How could that be, if it was just a machine? Machines don't ache. Machines are not ticklish! And how could her right palm ache and have a fresh, raw wound in it? Which was even developing a scab. At least it probably wouldn't get infected. She didn't remember having any infections in two years. Last year, most of the junior high caught a flu in an epidemic, she never did.

Sighing, she put her touchpad down. She wouldn't be finishing her homework tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

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Yuno and Tomoe had said goodbye and left. Konami had mailed her mothers about sleeping over. Kagami had called her first before giving permission. Konata didn't even bother to answer; she probably knew that Kagami would handle it if she had even read the mail.

Konami had suggested taking a bath together, but of course Akane had refused.

When Konami got back from the bathroom, all clean and fresh, wearing one of Akane's bathrobes which was dragging behind her because it was much too long for her, she saw that Akane had taken out the guest futon.

"Didn't you have a guest room?" Konami asked innocently.

"No," Akane answered without giving it a thought.

Konami chuckled – it had not been very hard to guess what was really going on, which was that Akane's parents slept in separate rooms.

"Yes, I meant, yes!" Akane corrected. "I mean, uh …"

She couldn't think of any explanation.

"Aww, Akane wants me to sleep in the same room!" Konami chirped.

"Yeah … t-that's it. Anyway, I'm taking a bath now," Akane muttered, and scurried away, before Konami would tease her more.

When Akane got back, she found out that the guest futon had been returned into the closet and that Konami was lying on her bed, under the covers.

"What are you doing there?" Akane groaned.

"The futon was uncomfortable. This bed is nice. And it's big, we both can easily fit in here."

It was ridiculously embarrassing, of course, but Akane was too tired to care. "Whatever. I hope you don't snore."

"No, I don't think so. But I do toss around a bit in my sleep, so don't be alarmed."

Akane had already changed into her pajamas, so she just sighed, slipped under the covers and turned the lights off using the remote.

Konami sighed contentedly and crept closer to her. She didn't seem to care about personal space, and her body brushed against Akane's.

Akane would never say it aloud, but it felt very good to have this cute, warm, soft, petite girl in the same bed with her. Her presence did make falling asleep a lot harder, though.

"Do you have periods?" Konami suddenly whispered.

"What kind of question is that! O-of course I ha –"

Akane stopped in middle of the sentence and her mouth was left open. Konami waited for the thought to sink in.

"What kind of pervert would include simulated periods!" Akane finally groaned. "And growling stomach…and smells…"

"Who knows, maybe you also have an android uterus and can get preg-"

"Stop right there!" Akane yelled. "Don't even think of that. That's just … too weird."

"Anyway … they sure did a good job. Can't you see? They wanted you to be indistinguishable from a human."

"Why? Why the hell did they do all this? Who ARE they?"

"Indeed. We don't know anything yet. Let's hope your parents know. That they even know that you are – well, you know."

"Konami," Akane whispered, her voice breaking. "I don't want to talk no more. Just … just hold me."

"Eh?"

Akane whispered so quietly that Konami had a hard time hearing her. "Hold me. Because … I'm so afraid."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't realize…"

As Konami was wrapping her arms around Akane and trying to find a comfortable position, Akane, just in case, added, "B-but don't get the wrong idea! I don't want to cuddle because I like you or anything!"

When Konami burst into laughter, Akane pushed her off the bed. Thankfully, there was tatami beside the bed instead of hard floor.

"Why the hell are you naked!" Akane screamed, when she looked over the edge of the bed to check on Konami.

"I didn't bring my pajamas," Konami explained.

"Take a pair of mine! Please!" Akane groaned, covering her eyes. But she couldn't unsee.

* * *

><p>See the Author Notes at the end of the first chapter for character descriptions and about what happened to the original characters after Dare! story.<p>

Yuno calls Akane "Akane Tendo," from Ranma½, whose cooking is absolutely terrible. The others didn't get it. Yes, she called her that because Tendo's cooking IS terrible. Yuno wanted to mock her because she was jealous.

So, **Mikeru-**D and **ulti**, you nailed it! And Mikeru-D with the exactly correct term: cyborg (as far as we currently know). Among the clues were her superhuman speed in certain things, such as typing and slapping Konami's groping hands away; her miraculous survival of a lightning strike; her tight bum; and most of all her mysterious medical arrangements. And, of course, the V*caloid androids in the first chapter were mentioned for a reason. Though, at that point, I didn't even myself know Akane was a cyborg. :D

In evolution, most changes, mutations that prevail, have more than one function. This story is about human evolution, and the reasons of the existence for Akane and other cyborgs, and androids, are convoluted. There are obvious reasons for creating things like that, and then there might be hidden reasons. Whether this story will be about the obvious or the hidden reasons will set the tone of the rest of it. The hidden reasons would be something sinister. The obvious reasons are benevolent; helping disabled people, making humankind immortal, colonizing the space and saving the entire human race. And I haven't actually decided yet...


	5. Five Billion Yen Girl

**Dare! the Next Generation: Chapter 5: Five Billion Yen Girl**

This is the weird sequel of Lucky Star: Truth or Dare and Lucky Star: Dare! fics. So I'd better WARN YOU: there are lots of OCs around. All the main characters are OCs. That's because they are the descendants of (some) of the original Lucky Star characters. It's year 2024, and the main characters are high school freshmen, at Ryōō High where their parents used to go.

I should also warn you that this is getting pretty far from Lucky Star. The happy-go-lucky times of Lucky Star are long in the past. This is not a slice of life story. Still, it's probably a better future than it will be in the real world.

I don't own Lucky Star (nor the V*caloids).

* * *

><p>A ray of sunlight woke up Akane at the morning. She realized she had overslept, though it was a Sunday so it didn't matter. Also, she couldn't get up anyway because Konami was holding her and she didn't want to wake her up. The covers had slid away but Konami kept her warm so she didn't care.<p>

For a few seconds, she was happy, until she remembered yesterday. Her life had been irrecoverably turned upside down. That she was not a human anymore, but a machine. Robot. Android. Cyborg?

At least they, whoever they were, had made a pretty damn good job, because she felt almost like a real person. She could remember how she had been like three years ago and before, when she still – probably – was a human.

In some ways, it had been worse. There had been much more pain, aches, and sickness. She had often felt tired. Now, as she thought of it, she never felt tired these days. Just sleepy, if she had been awake for too long. Strangely, all her senses felt even sharper than back then. One would expect that a machine wouldn't have acute senses, but she had. Her vision and hearing were better, and even her sense of smell and touch … at this point she became very aware of Konami sleeping on her arms, her body against hers. _"Is this normal, sleeping with another girl like this?"_

Akane squirmed away from Konami's grasp, trying not to wake her up. Konami muttered in her sleep and tried to grab her again. She pulled the covers on her, so that she wouldn't get cold.

Akane pulled a chair next to the bed and sat down.

What came to her cyborg-ness … her parents. They would have to answer some tricky questions today. She would force them to answer!

However, she forgot about that quickly because she had something else to do. That is, to watch sleeping Konami. She was an unbearably cute sight, sleeping in a Hell* Kitt* -printed pajama that was much too big for her.

"What was I thinking? Sleeping with another girl, normal? I'm anything but normal. Besides, that didn't actually happen. I'm not a girl at all. I'm a …thing. Konami could as well be sleeping with a hugging pillow. Anything she'd do with me would be counted as masturb –"

Akane forced herself to stop. "Eww, that was too weird! Maybe I should just act as if I was a high school girl. It's not like I really changed yesterday, I'm still the same. I think. Do I go to school? Is there any point in it anymore? I do seem to learn things. Maybe it's just my programming?"

"I'm going insane!" she groaned aloud and pulled her hair.

She had not noticed Konami waking up. She flinched as Konami suddenly wrapped her small arms around her neck and hugged her. "You are still my widdle Akane-chan I wuw! Nothing has changed! …though I wouldn't mind you being my sex toy."

"Eww!" Akane said, and pried Konami's hands off of her. "I'm going to make breakfast. What'd you like?"

"Anything, if you cook it!"

"Is that so? I think we still have some snails and pork offal in the fridge…" Akane muttered, as she left the room.

Konami chuckled, because she knew Akane was only joking. Hopefully.

After a few minutes, when she got downstairs, she found miso soup, rice, tsukemono, and tea instead of snails and offal. And everything was great, far better than even her Konata-mother, the chef of their family, made.

"I asked you to marry me. And the offer still stands," Konami sighed after finishing her breakfast.

Akane blushed. She was afraid Konami was getting serious. But this only reminded her of her newfound nature. Are androids even allowed to marry? Was she someone's property, or a free individual?

She picked up the dishes and went into the kitchen without saying a word.

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By the time Akane had finished the dishes, her parents came home. Together, which was rare these days. They looked puzzled when they saw Akane with a friend. Also, they could sense that something had changed. Silently, they took their coats and shoes off and followed Akane to the living room, as if they knew they had something to talk about.

"Who's this?" Akira muttered. Her voice was husky due to whatever she had been drinking last night.

"Mom, this is my classmate, Konami Izumi," Akane introduced her. Konami bowed politely and recited the usual "sorry about the intrusion, I hope you take good care of me," lines that were expected from a classmate visiting another classmate's house.

Akane didn't know how to say it, so she simply got to the point. "Anyway, I know."

She raised her right palm and showed her parents the wound.

Minoru turned pale, stumbled backward, and leaned onto the wall. Akira glared at her, then back at Akane. "What do you know? You –"

Akira's mouth fell open as she understood it.

"She knows …" Minoru gasped.

Akane's mother walked up to her and slapped her palms onto Akane's shoulder, leaning on her, and stared into her eyes. Akane frowned because Akira smelled of old booze. "So it happened. They said you might find out …" Akira muttered. "I wish it had not been so soon."

Minoru suggested, "We'd better sit down. You … Konami? I know your parents. I saw you when you were a baby. But could you please leave, because this –"

Akane interrupted her father. "No! Konami stays here. She knows everything. It was she who found it out, in fact. I won't even talk to you if she isn't present!"

Her parents looked at each other. Akira shrugged her shoulders. "Can she be trusted?"

"It's not up to us anymore," Minoru said. "You know how it is."

"Yeah."

Akane glared at her parents – she couldn't quite understand what they meant.

So they all sat down.

"It happened two years ago …" Akira croacked. "Shiraishi, maybe you'd better…"

She rested her aching head onto the table and let Minoru to continue.

"You got into a bad car accident. A truck ran you over …" Minoru had to clear his throat before continuing. "It was terrible. You were dying. You had this multiple organ failure and everything. Then, the doctors said they had an experimental procedure and you were a suitable candidate. You would certainly have died otherwise, so we agreed. They flew you away somewhere in a helicopter and brought you back in two weeks … perfectly healthy. Wakase-san explained us as much as she said she was allowed to. It was far too much to comprehend. All we cared about was getting you back … and we did. That's it, basically."

"Wakase-san?" Akane asked.

"She's their representative … oh, once a few months, they visit us at night. They sedate you somehow, and, well, do repairs, as they say. I saw them carrying –" Minoru stopped at this point.

"What?" Konami asked. "Don't stop just when it was getting exciting!"

"Uh, limbs. Your old arms and legs …" Minoru muttered. "They had switched them to new ones."

A long, awkward silence followed. Even Konami didn't have a comeback.

"They said you might find out. And that if you did, we shouldn't try to hide the truth but to tell you. And that it would be up to you to decide what to do. The instruction manual –"

"There's an instruction manual?" Akane shouted.

Minoru stood up, and fetched a file from a locked drawer. "It's … well, see for yourself."

Looking exhausted, Minoru slumped back onto the couch and closed his eyes.

Each page was stamped with a big red "SECRET" tag. The index page alone made Akane dizzy. Konami was peeking over her shoulder as she read:

* Yamaha-Pompeu Model 16A

* Rosenlew™ model 8 nanoplastic synthetic muscles

* Bonetech™ full compound endoskeleton, class I

* Bactract Miracle™ artificial digestive track and simulated fluids

* Pepsodent Diamond™ prosthetic mouth unit, Model A (hyperrealistic)

* ArtiSkin RealDoll Deluxe™ simulated full-body tissue and hair, female with external genitals

* Nikoneye-PSE2 electromagnetic visuals: wavelength 10 nm .. 1 m, basic setting: visible light; telescope, microscope; 3D recorder (inactivated)

* Sinewave SAH™ stereo artificial hearing: 0 dB..210 dB, up to 60,000 Hz; basic setting: standard

* Sinewave HV™ synthetic human voice, Plavalaguna® Mk. IV, 200 W amp.

* New Fairlight Synthesizer™ compact

* Suunto EQ-PR™ artificial equilibrioception and proprioception

* Radio: Nokia 6G military standard mobile; emergency automatic only

* Chemical sensors: Chemnose Chien de Saint-Hubert III™ ; basic setting: standard

* Extra memory chips: not installed

* Ports: four standard micro-USBv8, extra ports available

* JGSDF synthetic nerve network, embedded system, fuel cells, and BIAJ unit¹

¹Contact company directly for any questions.

"You have a radio inside," Konami gasped. Then, she burst into hysterical laughter, mixed with tears because this was not only hilarious but also chillingly terrifying.

Akane leafed through the printed papers, and found more details about each "component". Final page was about her ports. There were supposed to be four ports at the back of her neck. The diagram showed that you'd have to press at the four spots simultaneously to open them.

Akane put the file down, parted her hair, and felt the back of her neck with her fingers. She discovered four places which were numb; they didn't have any sensation of touch. As she pushed on those four spots, she heard a soft click, and four little lids opened. She could feel holes underneath, and metallic horizontal slits inside.

Konami stopped laughing and her eyes turned wide as plates. "Th-those _are_ USB-ports…" she gasped.

Akane pushed the little lids close again. The last remnants of any doubts were gone. She was indeed everything this "instruction manual" said she was.

Or more.

Because the manual didn't have all the details. Especially on the last part. Nerve network. Embedded system. And "BIAJ unit," whatever that was. But nerves, nerves were things that connected into a brain.

"Dad, what are these: JGSDF and BIAJ?" she asked. She remained surprisingly calm.

"I'm not sure. I think JGSDF is the army. Self-Defence Forces. But I don't know what BIAJ means," Minoru said quietly.

"Haven't you asked?" Akane groaned.

"No …" Minoru seemed to be on the verge of tears. "I didn't want to know anything! I just kept thinking that our daughter was back, she's fine, and that everything was okay…"

They heard a snort from Akane, but she didn't raise her head.

Absent-mindedly, Akane had handed the file to Konami. She was gasping and giggling at the pages. "Look, Akane, this is great!" she exclaimed.

Recommendations:

* operating temperature: 223K..340K (-50 °C..+120 °C), short periods from 78K to 600K (watch for tissue integrity)

* max. safe lift: 3 tons; basic setting: standard

* max. safe running speed, flying start, optimal conditions: 160 km/h (100 mph)

Akane stopped reading at that point. Everything she learned only seemed to make things more bizarre. And more complicated.

"You have superpowers," Konami said, her voice breaking.

"I sure don't feel like that," Akane muttered. No, if at all possible, she felt exhausted.

Minoru suddenly remembered something and took out a business card from his wallet. "Oh, and they gave us this number we should call if there's anything wrong with y – if you get sick or something, I mean."

Akane snatched the card and stared at it. First thing she looked for was the name. "Izumi Wakase."

"Weird," Konami commented. "I think I have heard that name sometime."

"You have?" Akane muttered absent-mindedly. The card also said, "Saitama Gynoid Corporation," and stated her title, "Chief Engineer".

There was also a netphone number, so Akane took out her touchpad.

"You're going to call her now? It's Sunday morning, Akane," Konami reminded her.

"I don't care. I'll tell her that there's something wrong with me! And I'm not even lying," Akane muttered while she was typing in the number.

"Hello?" – "Yes, this is me, Akane calling. How did you know?" – "Okay." – "Wait a minute, fourth floor? Did you say fourth floor?" Akane gasped. She listened for a while, said, "We'll be right there," and ended the call without any formalities.

The others stared at her. "She wanted to meet me. Konami, come with me."

"And we'll take this file, if it's okay?" Konami asked her parents.

"It belongs to you now. But, Akane ... think before you do anything drastic," Minoru pleaded. "Think of the publicity. You know how it was with Konami's parents. They are still sometimes followed by paparazzis. And the school – how would they react –"

"Don't worry, dad," Akane muttered. "I'll just kill those doctors and this Wakase person first, and _then_ start thinking of something drastic."

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

"It's close enough, we can walk," Akane said, when they had gotten outside. She drew a deep breath of fresh air. She didn't know whether that would do her any good, though, like it did for _humans._

"What was that thing about the fourth floor, Akane?" Konami asked.

"She said she's at Saitama National Hospital, fourth floor."

"Hospitals don't have a fourth floor," Konami noted.

"Exactly."

They walked through the quiet streets in silence, until Konami said, "I remember where I heard that name. Izumi Wakase was my aunt's class rep while she was at high school."

"Your aunt, Yutaka Kobayakawa? I haven't met her yet."

"Yeah. I'm not sure what she does these days, though. We do get new year cards from her, but she hasn't called or visited us for three years."

At least this gave Akane something else to think. She herself never got new year cards from anyone. She knew she had grandparents but for some reason they didn't keep contact. She didn't want to tell Konami about this because it felt too sad.

"Hey, Akane, it's down this street," Konami noted, and grabbed her hand.

Akane didn't let go of Konami's hand before they got into the hospital.

"Let's see …" Konami muttered, and looked at the guide screen. "Nope. No Gynoid Corporation here … it's not on hospital's web pages either."

"I don't want to go to information desk. I'll just call her," Akane said quietly and took out her touchpad once again. "Yes, it's me again. We are here, but we can't –" – "What? What did you say?" – "O-okay…"

Akane put her touchpad away. "She said we should just go into the elevator and push 1 and 3 at the same time."

Konami giggled. "That's clever."

"That's weird!"

They waited for a bit so that there was an empty elevator available. "Let me push the buttons!" Konami chirped, excited like a child. She pushed the two buttons simultaneously, the elevator doors closed, and it started going up. The number on the panel displayed 1 … 2 … 3 … and, finally, "4".

With a soft hiss, the doors opened and revealed a shining white waiting room, with black leather couches around for customers. Across the room there was a booth with a glass wall, but nobody was sitting behind the glass, probably because it was a Sunday. The place looked nothing like a public hospital.

Slightly dazed, the girls walked down the corridor towards the only room that seemed to have its door open. Besides, it was the only corridor with lights on.

The room looked mostly like an electronics laboratory, with numerous cabinets full of mysterious devices. There was also something that looked like a dentist's chair, except that it was surrounded by wires and more electronic devices.

A woman was sitting behind a desk, her feet, inside pink, fluffy slippers, lifted onto the table. The woman's face was hidden behind a volume of manga. She didn't seem to notice Akane and Konata entering.

Akane noticed that the cover of the manga depicted a crouching woman in skimpy clothes holding a gun – the woman had numerous wires and devices attached to her.

"Ahem. Are you Izumi Wakase?" Konami asked.

The woman flinched, and quickly put the manga away. "Oh. I forgot you were coming," she said, and stood up. She was tall, taller than either of the girls, had a very long, brown hair, and purple eyes. She was wearing a white coat over a business jacket and skirt.

"I called you barely two minutes ago!" Akane groaned.

"Yeah, but this old manga is one of my favorites. Masamune Shirow's classic. Always gets me inspired!" Izumi Wakase explained. She bowed, and added, "Anyway, I am indeed Izumi Wakase. And you are Akane. And your little friend here…?"

"I'm Konami Izumi. I think you knew my aunt, Yutaka Kobayakawa," Konami said, bowing politely.

"Oh yes. We were classmates at high school. I presume you know everything?" Wakase asked Konami, and turned her eyes to Akane.

"Yes. She was the one who actually found out … about me," Akane muttered. Now, when she was actually facing the person responsible – or at least partially responsible – she didn't want to kill her. But she wanted answers. So, she simply said, "I have questions."

"I can understand that. First, I'll show you something …" Wakase said, and pointed at the 'dentist's chair' –like thing. "Sit down."

"What is that thing? Looks like a torture chair," Konami noted. Akane's eyes widened. That really didn't boost her confidence. At least she didn't see any needles or scalpels around.

Wakase walked to the chair and motioned for Akane to sit again. "Not at all. This is a diagnostics and repairs station. It won't harm Akane in any way, on the contrary."

Hesitatingly, Akane sat onto the thing and lifted her feet onto the footholds. "This is like a dentist's chair…"

"It is a dentist's chair, actually. We just added a few things," Wakase explained. Akane could feel Wakase's fingers touching the back of her neck. She heard the familiar click when the lids were opened. There was a weird sensation, when Wakase inserted plugs into her ports. As if her ports were tickling.

Wakase walked around the chair and turned a large display screen so that Akane and Konami could see it, and flicked a few switches.

Colorful diagrams and graphics appeared onto the screen.

"I see…I see…" Wakase muttered. "Looks like there are problems with your left ankle and your right palm."

Now they realized the diagram showed Akane's body. Flashing red colors indicated the problem areas.

"Yes, I sprained my ankle. And yesterday I, uh, wounded my hand," Akane said, and showed her palm to Wakase.

"Oh, that looks bad. Well, we were going to replace soon anyway. But I think you have to take off your clothes first."

Akane raised her head and stared at Wakase. "…What?"

"We need to replace your limbs. To Model 17."

"What?" Akane asked again.

"Your arms and legs. We can't yet make artificial limbs grow. The only way is to replace them. Especially since your leg and hand are damaged. This new model is sturdier, too. I'd be surprised if you manage to sprain an ankle anymore!" Wakase explained, looking proud.

"You … want to replace … my limbs …" Akane groaned.

"We have replaced several of parts already. A year ago we replaced your entire upper body. And these will be the … hmm … fifth limbs you get."

Akane slumped back onto the chair. Even Konami looked a bit pale and had to sit down.

Wakase came closer and patted Akane on the shoulder. "So you can trust me. I would never harm you. You are … precious. To me, to many other people. In more than one way. Let's get this over with and then I'll answer your questions, okay?"

Konami drew a deep breath, stood up, and took Akane's hand. "If they have done all that before, I guess there's nothing to fear. Except the thought of getting your limbs removed and replaced …"

Konami shivered, and added, "But you are built that way, apparently."

"We don't even have to sedate you now. Let me show you …"

Wakase fiddled with the touchpad she was holding and suddenly Akane's left hand _disappeared_. It didn't go numb, it simply ceased to exist. As if it had never even been there. She could see Konami still holding her hand, but she couldn't feel it.

"You won't feel anything. And we can do it one limb at a time –" Wakase poked a finger on the touchpad and Akane's hand _appeared_ again, as suddenly it had gone. "Now, the clothes. You can leave your underwear on. And we need to take pictures first."

Wakase unplugged Akane. Obediently, she stood up and started unbuttoning her black-white-blue plaid flannel shirt and blue jeans. "Pictures of me in my underwear? Why?"

"Sorry, but it is necessary for the research."

"Don't worry, Akane!" Konami chirped. "I'll stay here with you and make sure she doesn't abuse you."

"I wouldn't do anything like that!" Wakase exclaimed.

"Konami stays," Akane confirmed.

"I can strip too if that makes you more comfortable?" Konami asked.

"No, thanks," Akane said, and kicked her jeans off of her feet.

"Stand still on this red circle, here," Wakase instructed. "This takes just a few seconds."

There were multiple flashes of light, but they didn't see any cameras. Which was nothing unusual with 2020's technology. Akane didn't quite like the way Wakase was staring at her during the photograph session. She only hoped it was only scientific curiosity.

"Done. Now, would you return to the chair while I fetch the, hm, spare parts."

Akane and Konami were left alone, both feeling a bit dazed. They looked at each other. "Things just keep getting weirder and weirder," Akane groaned. She slumped back onto the chair.

Konami tried to comfort her. "I don't think this is weird … for a cyborg, that is. To get repairs. It's like going to a doctor. It's like, hm, cosmetic surgery."

"S-surgery? She's not going to cut my limbs off, i-is she?" Akane gasped, and grabbed Konami's hand again.

"No, of course not! She's going to … uhh …"

Actually Konami had no idea how Wakase would detach her limbs. "Screw them off?"

"That's it. I'm leaving!" Akane yelled, and bolted off from the chair. "Tell her I suddenly remembered I had to be somewhere!"

"Wait, Akane!" Konami shouted, and ran after her. Not that Akane had gotten very far, she was standing at the elevator and pushing the call button repeatedly. "You can't go anywhere like that!"

Akane realized she was only wearing her underwear.

"You can't leave until we fix you," Wakase said. She had appeared from somewhere, bringing a pushcart with several large boxes on it with her. "Your left ankle might break if we don't do anything. And you need these parts."

Akane hung her head down. "I guess the only way to end this nightmare is to go through it."

"Just relax," Wakase whispered, when she was plugging Akane back into the system.

After she had _turned off_ Akane's left hand again, she tapped on the touchpad a couple of more times and Akane could hear a soft clinking sound from within her shoulder. Wakase grabbed her upper arm, pulled and twisted a bit, and it became detached. Until now, Konami had been watching closely but this sight turned her stomach and she looked away. Akane didn't feel nauseated. The detached limb didn't even really feel like hers. "What does it look like?" she asked Konami, meaning her shoulder.

Bravely, Konami took a look. "There's a thick fleshlike outer layer, then a metal mesh...inside your shoulder it's all shiny metal. And something white."

She didn't describe the fluids which were dripping out. There was something that looked like blood, and another, white, somewhat oily liquid. Swiftly, Wakase wiped out the secretions with a sterile cloth. "Those white parts are plastic," she commented.

"Yech. I'm made of plastic?" Akane muttered.

"It's very special plastic. You'd weigh six hundred pounds if we used metal only."

Wakase took a replacement limb from its protective bag, and swiftly attached it into Akane's shoulder. She took some kind of a pen-like device and circled the seam with it, leaving the skin smooth and seamless. A tap on the touchpad, and Akane felt her hand returning back again, as if nothing had happened. She lifted the hand and looked at it. "My fingernails…" she groaned.

"I don't see anything wrong," Konami noted.

"I didn't realize that my nails never grew. I never used a nail clipper …" Akane sighed. "How stupid I was."

Wakase raised her eyes from the touchpad. "Oh, your fingernails. From now on, you can change them yourself. I'll give you a small repairs kit."

Akane's felt her right hand being "turned off". Now that she knew how easy the procedure was, she felt a lot more relaxed. Within half an hour, she had four new limbs. Just like that. And her ankle didn't ache anymore.

"We're done, except for some diagnostics. And I think you need to see the parameters and options, just so that you are aware of them," Wakase explained, and pressed her touchpad. The screen was filled with text, with checkboxes indicating which options was active and which wasn't.

"This is so weird," Konami gasped. "It's like options of a game or something."

Akane didn't understand all of the "options," because many of them were either very technical or expressed in complex medical terms. But one thing attracted her attention. "Simulated menstruation? Turn it off!"

"Eeeeh? But we worked so hard to get that exactly right!" Wakase protested. "Don't you think it's essential for a woman –"

"I don't care. Turn it off!" Akane yelled.

"Okay, okay," Wakase sighed, and clicked on the checkbox. "Can't do anything to PMS, though. We've found out that that is in people's brain."

"Fine. As long as I don't need to use…uh, _those_," Akane muttered. She was blushing a bit, because this was an intimate thing, not usually discussed with other people. And this Wakase woman actually had _control_ over her intimate things, which was quite disturbing.

"I'm envious," Konami sighed. "You don't have to suffer from 'the curse'. You know it was called 'the curse' in the old times?"

"Whatever! I'd switch places with you in an instant, if I could! The benefits of being a cyborg … I don't think they match the drawbacks."

"But you're awesome, Akane!" Konami exclaimed. "Anyway, from the instruction manual I found out that Akane has superpowers. Like, she can run 100 miles per hour and stuff. I presume those aren't activated?"

"No, of course not. We can't have super-schoolgirls running around and causing havoc," Wakase explained.

"So you've taken away all the benefits and left only the drawbacks?" Akane asked, but it was a rhetorical question. She thought about it for a while – a very short while – and said, "Turn them on. All of them."

"But –"

"No buts! Since you've taken away my humanity, give me something in return. That is, if I can control it? I wouldn't, for example, crush Konami's hand or something?"

"All right, then," Wakase sighed. "I'll do it. But please, be considerate. Yes, you can control it, even when not limited. The switch is in your upper right back tooth. When you press it with your tongue, the limitations are switched off. Press again to activate them again. Don't go throwing cars around or run a hundred miles per hour if someone's watching. It might attract attention. Also, you'll run out of energy real fast. You'll get ravenously hungry and have got to eat a _lot_ of food. Or, you can use these."

Wakase lifted a small cardboard box onto a side table and took out an inch-long, pellet-like thing. "These are for your fuel cells. Don't store them in hot conditions. One of these keeps you going all day. Less, if you exert yourself."

"What's inside those things?" Akane asked.

"I'm sorry, but that's classified –"

"Excuse me, _where_ do I have to stick these things into to use them? Do I have more, uh, orifices somewhere?"

"Ah! That's pretty clever, if I may say so. You just swallow them. They automatically go where they are supposed to. You can swallow up to ten at a time."

"And where do the empty pellets go?"

"Used pellets are extracted naturally," Wakase announced, looking proud.

"Eww!"

"Oh, and don't try to open the pellets. They are hazardous."

"Radioactive?" Konami chirped.

"No. We are not barbarians, for heaven's sake!"

Akane asked about some of the other "options," but Wakase's attempts at explaining them didn't make much sense to girls without a degree in cybernetic engineering. There was a few which Akane opted not to have, such as the radio, the camera, and the weird voice options.

But she asked to have the super-scent – and learned that "Chien de Saint-Hubert III" meant a bloodhound.

"Why super-scent, Akane?" Konami asked, staring innocently at her.

It had really been just a whim. "Uh, I don't know. I think it's better than super-hearing anyway."

"Anyway, I think that's all," Wakase said. "You can always come back if you want to change something."

Akane stood up and started putting on her clothes. "We are not finished."

Wakase nodded. "Let's sit down. I think this will take some time. Want coffee or something? The vending automat is over there. It's got everything."

And true enough, a drink vending machine at a cybernetics laboratory was a technological miracle. Akane chose a tropical smoothie and Konami a Wiener Melange.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

They were sitting on the couch, Akane in the middle of Konami and Wakase, and enjoying their drinks. But this was not a social meeting. Akane felt a chill in her spine – _"How can cyborgs feel such things anyway?"_ – because she was afraid of the answers she might be getting soon.

"First, why did you do this to me?"

Wakase sipped her café latte and placed it onto the table. "Because you would have died, your body was dying, and you were a suitable candidate for a full cyborg body."

"Which was more important? Saving me or getting a full cyborg?"

"I guess I have to be honest and to say, the latter. But trust me, if we could save all people who are injured like you, we would."

"Why can't you?"

"Because this can be done only on 14-year old girls. You were a right girl at the right situation – well, maybe that's not a good word choice here – and at the right time and place."

"Why only 14-year old girls?"

Wakase reached for her cup again. "I'm sorry, but that is classified. I can't tell you."

"How much will all this cost?"

"Nothing, I mean, you don't have to pay anything."

"But all this must cost a _lot_. Millions of yen?"

"To start with, five billion," Wakase confirmed.

"Akane, you are a five billion dollar girl!" Konami chirped.

"That's not funny! …wait, I hope it was yen and not dollars?"

"Yeah, five billion yen. And tens of millions a year."

"That's still a ridiculous amount of money. Why did you really do it? You don't spend that much on a dying schoolgirl without a real reason."

"I can't tell you everything, but you are a very important research subject. One of the very few in Japan."

"There is more than one of us!" Akane yelled.

"Of course. We couldn't have gone this far without many test subjects. There are about a dozen of people like you in Japan at the moment. Sorry that I can't tell you any names, because, you know."

Akane rested her head into her palms for a while. One thing cyborgs could apparently still get was headaches. She felt one developing.

"We have barely started yet, but I need to think all of this over …" Akane muttered. "So, just one last question: who started making humanlike androids? And why? Why not just make robots?"

Wakase blushed a bit. "Uh … the first very realistic ones were made for some very, very rich clients."

"Why?" Akane asked, before she realized _why_. "Aargh!" she screamed. "Damn! No! That's just sick!"

"Well, they paid a lot … and at that time we didn't have much sponsors or investors – before the government took over we –"

Akane interrupted. "No, no! Don't explain!"

Konami nudged Akane in the ribs. "Like I said, I wouldn't mind having you as my –"

"Stop, if you don't want a spanking."

"Oh! Please, don't! Couldn't sit for a week after the last time," Konami gasped.

Izumi Wakase's eyes widened before she realized Konami was just kidding. "You two…" she sighed.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

Outside, Akane almost broke down, figuratively. She wrapped her shiny new, figuratively, arms around Konami and pulled her into a hug.

This surprised Konami, because Akane never did such things. But she didn't say anything, not wanting to spoil the moment. She wrapped her arms around her golden-haired friend, pressed her cheek against her chest, and enjoyed the moment. "Your heart is pounding, Akane."

"Do I have a heart?" Akane whispered.

"Yes … yes, you do. A big, warm heart, deep down. And you were very brave in there. I would have totally freaked out."

Both of them were silent for a long while, until Konami whispered, "So … you've got all these superpowers now. Am I your sidekick?"

"No!" Akane responded immediately. "No … you are my savior …"

Konami felt something wet falling on her face and realized it was Akane's tears.

"Don't cry. Everything's gonna be all right."

"S-simulated. It's not even real tears…"

"I couldn't tell. You are human! Your body feels just like a human's…you even get goose pumps when I slide my hand down here."

"Don't put your hand in there!" Akane groaned, though she didn't anything to stop Konami. Her body didn't really feel like _hers_ anymore, so why should she care? Or … maybe it was just because it was Konami and nobody else. She knew she'd let her do anything she pleased. She deserved it, somehow.

"I have to go home," Konami whispered. "Mom and mom are getting worried."

"Go on. I'm fine," Akane said.

"Are you sure?"

Akane grinned at Konami. "After these two days…what _else_ could happen?"

"Indeed…"

After a last, hard squeeze, Konami let go of Akane and walked away. But she turned back to wave at her, and she waved back.

"Damn," Akane sighed. "I still have to do my homework…"

She _definitely_ didn't feel like trying her new "superpowers," so she took her time walking back home.

* * *

><p>See the Author Notes at the end of the first chapter for character descriptions and about what happened to the original characters after Dare! story.<p>

Yeah, poor Tomoe hasn't had much screen time. But she'll have to wait for a bit longer.

In the last chapter, Yuno called Akane "Akane Tendo" exactly because Tendo's cooking is terrible. Yuno was jealous of Akane's cooking and wanted to mock her. Nobody got it, of course.

Japanese hospitals do not have a fourth floor – yes, it's a fact! – because four is _shi_, which also means death.

Izumi Wakase – a diehard otaku – was reading Masamune Shirow's manga, Ghost in the Shell. Inspiration, indeed.

Did you notice what Akane was wearing this time? Her fashion sense is indeed terrible.


	6. Scent

**Dare! the Next Generation: Chapter 6: Scent**

This is the sequel of Lucky Star: Truth or Dare and Lucky Star: Dare! fics. So I'd better WARN YOU: there are lots of OCs around. All the main characters are OCs. That's because they are the descendants of (some) of the original Lucky Star characters. It's year 2024, and the main characters are high school freshmen, at Ryōō High where their parents used to go.

I should also warn you that this is getting pretty far from Lucky Star. The happy-go-lucky times of Lucky Star are long in the past. This is not a slice of life story (I think…?).

I don't own Lucky Star (nor the V*caloids).

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><p>Another Monday morning, and it was particularly bad for Akane. First of all, when she had come home last night, her parents had gone crazy. She found them on the sofa, kissing and cuddling and behaving like a lovey-dovey couple. Something she didn't remember happening for years. They had also emptied almost two bottles of champagne in celebration, and greeted Akane cheerfully as she came in. So the only thing that had stopped from them being happy had been Akane, and their responsibility for her. Or so Akane thought, she wasn't a 100 % certain and she didn't bother to ask.<p>

Everything that had happened ran through Akane's mind and she didn't get enough sleep. Besides, she could hear very embarrassing noises, such as the sound of a bed banging into a wall, from the other bedroom, until she put on wireless earpieces and activated a noise-eliminating software on her touchpad.

So, at Monday morning, it was a herculean effort for Akane to get up, go to school, and to walk through the school gates. Also, starting from today, everyone would stare at her. They would fear her, hate her, shun her. A freak. A monster.

"Hi, Akane!" someone yelled. It was one of her classmates – not one of her four closest friends, though. "Are you okay?"

Only at this point, Akane realized how stupid she had been. She almost burst into laughter. Because _nobody knew_. Only her four best friends knew. And nobody would even _believe_ her, even if she told them. This raised her spirits quite a bit.

"Oh, hi! I'm fine. Great," Akane answered, and almost smiled at her classmate, who was a bit surprised of this remarkably un-Akane-ish behavior. What's more, Akane started talking. "What's up? I understood that the special P.E. takes the entire afternoon…"

They started a pleasant, _human_ conversation as they walked to the shoe lockers.

In the hallway, Yuno suddenly appeared and jumped on Akane, wrapping her arms around her. Akane was far from becoming accustomed to daily hugging, so she froze on the spot. Besides, she always forgot how good-looking Yuno was before seeing her again. And she smelled so very, very good. Hugging in public was still not very common in Japan, and they drew odd looks from bystanders. Yuno tip-toed, inadvertently pressing herself very tightly against Akane, and whispered into her ear, "Since you have taken _my_ Konami, I will take Tomoe. She's mine, and you'd better remember it. Mine!"

"W-what?" Akane gasped, but Yuno released her, and even gave her a little push, as if a warning, before turning around and running off, leaving Akane blushing and standing with her jaw open.

Akane shook her head. _"Konami is your … relative, Yuno!"_

Not that Akane could tell what relative. _"Let's see … Konami's second mother's father is Yuno's father … so Yuno is Konami's half-grand aunt? No …"_

Deep in thoughts, she turned a corner, and almost bumped into Tomoe, who didn't hesitate to hug her as well. "Hi, Akane, how are you? Are you okay?" Tomoe asked. Akane muttered some answer, which couldn't be heard since her face was being squeezed into Tomoe's chest. Tomoe smelled very good as well. Akane could also smell that she had had a simple breakfast, of miso soup and rice. As quickly as Akane thought it would be polite, she gently pried herself off of Tomoe. "I-I'm fine…" she stuttered. She followed the tall blonde into the classroom.

Where, once again, Akane was assaulted by a surprise hug. By Konami, of course. She could smell her familiar scent even before she saw her. "Akane-chaan!" Konami yelled, and jumped onto her. She even wrapped her legs around Akane. "Okay, okay …" Akane sighed. Konami clung onto her and didn't let go, so she walked to her desk carrying Konami with her. Konami smelled good as well. She had obviously had tea, and toast with raspberry jam for breakfast. Konami's underwear was clean as well–it smelled slightly of bleach and detergent. Akane blushed even brighter when she realized what she had just smelled.

Akane managed to detach Konami and place her down, only to be hugged by two _more_ female classmates at the same time, one from behind and the other from the front. "Akane-chan!" they both cooed.

"Not _everyone_ has to hug me every day!" Akane groaned.

"Aww…" the girls moaned, but let her go. "But Konami told us you need lots of love, and she doesn't mind sharing you!" the other girl chirped.

"Konami…" Akane growled, and glared at her menacingly.

"Uguu…" Konami gasped, and cowered behind her desk. Now she was afraid to tell that Kuroi-sensei had promised to hug her daily as well, and decided to leave it a surprise. Today they didn't have Kuroi-sensei's class, fortunately.

Next, Akane noticed there were two or three boys standing on the line behind the girl who had hugged her. She threw at them a gaze which could kill a weaker person and growled, "Don't even think about it!". The boys bowed and apologized profusely. Secretly, Akane was a bit pleased because now even boys wanted to hug her. It was a huge difference from all her previous schools.

Akane sat down, sighed deeply and closed her eyes. Her morning had turned out great. It _almost_ made her forget the weekend and the fact of … what she was.

She smiled slightly, which made some of her classmates shiver; Akane normally never smiled and so it looked creepy.

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Embarrassingly, Akane's stomach growled in the middle of math class when everyone was quietly calculating some assignments. One of the "options" she had forgotten to get turned off.

"Hungry, Akane?" Konami whispered a question.

"Yeah …" Akane muttered, and sniffed the air. "The cafeteria curry rice smells so good today. And they have yakisoba, and grilled mackerel as well…"

She was almost drooling.

"Oh, so you checked the menu?"

"No … no, I didn't! … I … I just smell everything they've got available…"

"That's impossible. I can't smell anything from here – oh, wait. It _is_ impossible, for us. But not for you," Konami whispered.

Akane blushed. First of all, now she remembered what she had asked from Wakase. This was her super-scent ability! Secondly, she also remembered how good Yuno and the others had smelled. She only hoped it had been perfume or something.

"Damn. I didn't activate anything. But my sense of smell is boosted," Akane whispered back.

"Isn't that great?"

"Well, yes, and no…"

There were far too many scents around. Some of them Akane didn't even want to smell.

She closed her eyes and realized that with a little practice, she wouldn't have to use her eyes at all. She could walk around the classroom simply by using her sense of smell. While amazing, it was also a bit disturbing. She could even work as a bloodhound…

But she didn't want to have this kind of sense at the moment. It was distracting. So, for the first time, Akane flicked the switch on her tooth. She felt tingling in all of her muscles, but otherwise felt quite normal. She looked around for something to test her empowered muscles upon. Hitting Konami in the head was probably out of the question. So, the only idea she got was to pinch the edge of her desk and squeeze hard. There was a crunching sound, and her thumb and forefinger sank into the wood like it was butter. She released her grasp and saw that the hard wood of her desk had two clear depressions, as if someone had pinched it with bolt cutters.

Her eyes widened, and quickly she flicked the switch again.

But her sense of smell still stayed the same.

"Damn it, is it a bug?" she groaned aloud, forgetting where she was.

There was a loud, shrill scream, as Yuno panicked and jumped on the top of her desk, lifting her skirt up and showing her cute light pink panties to the entire class. "A bug! Kill it! Kill it!"

About half of the class panicked – and not all of them just girls – because of this icky bug crawling around somewhere. The rest of the class was frozen, staring at Yuno. Desks were toppled over and peoples' touchpads clattered onto the floor as they searched for the bug.

Akane couldn't explain what she had meant, so she finally yelled that the "bug" had escaped through the window, and peace was gradually restored.

Fortunately nobody realized the windows had all been closed the whole time.

Two girls had to go to the nurse's office due to a Yuno's panties -induced nosebleed, three boys had to stuff their nostrils with tissues for the rest of the class, and Konami had to be sent to stand in the hallway because she couldn't stop laughing.

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The entire afternoon was reserved for physical education. While P.E. was already popular, thanks to their charming and laid-back teacher, Misao Kusakabe-sensei, this particular lesson had been the topic of the past week. Especially the girls of the class waited it with great anticipation, as Tomoe and the athletics club were going to demonstrate sports fencing today. Konami had arranged a draw to determine the order in which they got to have a bout with Tomoe–for those who were lucky enough to draw a number, because Tomoe wouldn't have time to go against everyone.

Konami had persuaded Akane to participate, even when she said at first that she wouldn't need to and that she hated competition. She had drawn a surprisingly low number and made many girls even more jealous; they were already vexed because Akane seemed to be such a close friend to Tomoe.

Many girls had smuggled a small digital camera into the gym, and whenever Kusakabe-sensei wasn't looking, they snapped pictures, almost always of Tomoe.

Before they got to grab a sword, however, Tomoe lead a warm-up which consisted of running around the gym, as well as walking in a crouching position, and stretching, especially of the legs. "I'm already exhausted and we haven't even started yet!" Konami whined.

Next thing Tomoe showed them was the fencing guard and steps, meaning, you had to twist your body and legs in a painful sideways position and drag your feet as you stepped forward and back. She made everyone do the steps forward and backward along the entire length of the gym.

When this practice was over, the weaker –and lazier–girls and boys of the class, including Konami, threw themselves onto the floor, and moaned and groaned.

Tomoe just grinned, and exclaimed, "Come on, we do this every day! And a lot longer than this."

"Everyone, get up!" Kusakabe-sensei yelled. "Chop-chop!"

"Sensei, it's easy for you to say!" one of the boys moaned. Indeed, Kusakabe-sensei had just sat on a pile of training mats and played with her touchpad while her students worked out.

"I have already gone through high school so I don't have to do anything!" sensei explained, and grinned so that her fang showed.

"Exercise would do you good, sensei. Looks like you've gained weight!" one of the girls yelled. The students burst into laughter.

"Who said that!" Kusakabe-sensei shouted. The culprit – who was Yuno – didn't confess and her classmates didn't snitch on her.

Akane didn't feel any pain, but she could imagine how the others felt, if only barely, from her past life. Apparently her artificial body didn't simulate much pain unless something was actually in danger of being damaged. She felt she could have stayed in this twisted position all day. Tomoe seemed to notice this and winked an eye at her.

"Right! That's enough warm-up for you weaklings!" Tomoe shouted. "You can take swords now. But don't go around poking each other with them, not without the padded jackets and helmets. We'll practice a few basic moves first."

Tomoe showed them how to hold the épée, and how to "poke people with it" the correct way. Most students were surprised to learn how different it was from things seen in the movies. The épée was not swung around in large arcs and the blades would not be clashing; such practices would in fact result in disqualification. And most of the work was done with the feet and not with the hand.

"Practice a few thrusts on those training dummies over there," Tomoe commanded, motioning at the things the athletics club had brought. The students formed two lines and waited for their turn.

Akane took the last position in the line. She had decided that this was a good time to try it without the limitations. Maybe the unlimited mode would make her faster? And if she used too much strength by accident, it was better to hurt the training dummy than a real person.

She waited that the others had finished and walked away, to have a drink or to gather at the other end of the gym where they were unrolling the fencing mats. Only Konami had noticed Akane was up to something and was secretly observing her from behind the other training dummy.

Akane felt the familiar tingle in her muscles as she flicked the switch. She pointed her sword at the dummy and lunged forward. She didn't felt any faster than normal, but otherwise it was quite effective.

Much too effective, in fact, because she ran the training dummy through, and then her épée snapped into pieces. There was a loud, metallic clinking and snapping sound and one piece of the sword clattered ten yards away to the left of her. Akane immediately reactivated her limitations and stared at the stump of the sword in bewilderment.

Everyone went silent and turned to look at her.

Tomoe came over to count the casualties, but fortunately nobody had been injured. "Whoa!" she gasped. Tomoe yanked the other half of the sword off of the training dummy, but she did it discreetly and covering the operation with her body so that nobody, except Konami, realized what had happened.

"These things are very flexible but they do break sometimes, so be careful," Tomoe warned everyone, showing them the broken blade. "We'd better wear jackets and helmets now, and train in pairs."

Tomoe whispered into Akane's ear. "Hey, Akane, are you going to hit one of us like that?"

"No, definitely not. Never," Akane whispered back.

Tomoe eyed Akane with some suspicion, but then she slapped her back and grinned. "You don't know your own strength, do you? Mind you, this isn't a strength sport. And the fights are not to the death!"

"Yeah. I know. Sorry. That won't happen again, I promise," Akane whispered, her face now blushing with embarrassment.

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An hour and a short recess later, it was time for the actual bouts. They only had three piste, fencing strips, so the rest of the class waited and watched while six students at a time fought on. Most of the girls were watching Tomoe, swooning over her, and how cool she looked in her complete, form-fitting fencing kit. The club was keeping track on the results, though Tomoe wasn't taking part in the class championship competition.

With such a short practice, most of the bouts induced a lot of fumbling and giggles. Konami was doing surprisingly well, though her opponents claimed that she was too small and thus difficult to hit. Akane won each of her bouts effortlessly, with only Konami and Yuno scored a hit or two before she pulverized them. Somehow Yuno seemed to win all the girls she fought against, but she was even with the boys. She got warned by the judges for being a bit too rough against the girls.

In the end, Akane won the class championship, one of the boys came second, and Konami and Yuno were next.

What followed was the long-awaited event of the day: bouts against Tomoe and the other club members. Those fortunate ones who had won in Konami's draw, or had traded or acquired a number, waited eagerly to have their turn. Only a couple of boys had managed to hold onto their position on this line, the rest having been coerced to give up theirs to the girls, one way or another.

Of course, none of them stood a chance against Tomoe, but that was not really the point. Being poked in the chest by Tomoe's épée was a dream come true for most of the girls. One of the girls even shouted that she was dying, and fainted as Tomoe "killed" her with her sword. Playfully, Tomoe destroyed each one of her opponents. Only Konami and the boy who had become second in the class contest gave her any sort of opposition, both scoring one hit on Tomoe. Yuno had seemingly forgotten her skills altogether, losing 5-0 to Tomoe. Yuno got entangled in her own feet, and even dropped her épée once, sending it flying past Tomoe and clattering onto the floor.

The class champion, Akane, got the last bout. By now Akane knew that, even without activating her powers, her nerve system was already significantly faster than human's. That's why she had won everyone else. Biological humans simply could not command her muscles quite as fast as she. With her superiorly steady artificial hand, she could also direct the point of the épée much better than anyone else.

Everyone was silently watching as Tomoe walked to the other end of the fencing mat and raised her épée in front of her face, looking at Akane; she also greeted their judge and the audience the same way. Akane copied these gestures – the compulsory greetings of fencing.

"En garde!" the club member working as the judge yelled.

This being the 2020's, the swords all worked wirelessly and they didn't have to plug them into anything. So they just wore their helmets and assumed the positions. Tomoe was left-handed, like Akane; she remembered reading that this was an advantage with many combat sports.

"Prêt?"

Which meant, "Ready?". Both of them nodded.

"Allez!" the judge yelled. Tomoe took a step forward, but waited for Akane to attack first.

Akane pushed her hand forward and took rapid steps, aiming for Tomoe's chest. Of course, she had not activated her unlimited strength, but her attack was still incredibly fast, almost taking Tomoe by surprise. But she only guided Akane's blade slightly to the side, and poked Akane's arm from below using her superior reach. A buzzer and a flashing light in Tomoe's sword hilt indicated that she had scored the hit, and the judge yelled, "Halt!"

"Whoa!" Tomoe exclaimed, and stepped backwards. "You are really fast!"

Fast, yes, but Tomoe had still taken the point. Akane couldn't understand how she managed to do it.

Second time, Akane tried to bypass Tomoe's sword by making a feint, more with instinct than by using actual fencing tactics, because she had not studied them. But Tomoe had. She executed something called a parry-riposte. Again, Tomoe's sword slid harmlessly to the side and she was caught in the ribs by Tomoe.

"How did you –" Akane gasped. As if Tomoe had read her mind and known what she had tried to do?

Slightly annoyed, Akane readied herself. This time, she waited for Tomoe to attack. She walked a step forward, but instead of doing an attack, she suddenly pointed her sword tip down and simply poked at Akane's leg, taking her by complete surprise, and scoring yet another hit. "W-what! That was …" Akane groaned. But she shut up, because there had not been anything unfair in it. Akane should have minded where her leg was.

It was 3-0 for Tomoe, and Akane was getting a bit frustrated. She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. For a while, she had forgotten her superior sense of smell. She could easily smell Tomoe. She could smell where the edges of the fencing strip were. She could smell Tomoe's épée. She could smell where the tip of Tomoe's épée was, with great precision.

As the judge called, "Allez!", she lunged forward without opening her eyes at all, twirled her sword tip around and caught Tomoe below the ribs.

"Halt!" the judge shouted, and the entire class gasped.

"Amazing!" Tomoe yelled. She suspected it had been just good luck, though. Akane's attack had seemed strange, as if she had not even looked where she was going.

Akane stumbled backwards, surprised, and embarrassed. She opened her eyes again. "N-no … that was wrong," she gasped, but nobody heard her through the cheering of the crowd. And there was no time to explain that she had basically been cheating by using her special qualities.

The sudden hit had startled Tomoe enough so that Akane managed to score another hit, this time with her eyes open, and using a very straightforward basic attack. The crowd yelled, applauded, and cheered at her.

But this second hit had woken Tomoe up, and she didn't give Akane any more chances. She took the initiative and attacked Akane, though she scored the fifth and final hit by using a fleche, which the class had not trained at all. Nevertheless, she would probably have won anyway.

Vaguely, Akane could hear Tomoe praising her. But she felt clumsy, ungraceful, awkward, and unskilled. Reflexes notwithstanding, this obviously required a lot of … something else. Muscle memory? So having an android body obviously didn't mean you excelled at all physical activities.

But there was something else she realized. The reason she had always hated competition had been fear of losing. That's why she had never showed her drawings to anyone, for example. She feared they were bad.

And now, she had lost. Yet, nobody was laughing at her. They were laughing _with_ her, and cheering, because she had scored two hits on Tomoe, which nobody else had managed to do.

With the mask still on, she ran away, towards the toilets.

They would have misunderstood the tears.

"Wait, Akane, that was incredible! Wouldn't you join the athletics cl–" Tomoe tried to ask Akane, but she was already gone.

Tomoe shrugged her shoulders, and announced, "I guess the class is dismissed." They headed to the showers.

Everyone had forgotten Kusakabe-sensei, who was snoring soundly on the pile of mats.

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Afterwards, as Akane and Konami were walking through the school yard together, Konami said, "Want to go to see Wakase-san about the smell problem? Or is it a problem?"

"No … I think I'm getting used to this. It does have its advantages. Besides, I don't want to see Wakase if I can avoid it."

"Why? Don't you have any more questions? About your … stuff."

Akane looked around. Yuno and Tomoe had slowed down and couldn't hear her if she lowered her voice. She wasn't sure if she could yet trust Yuno completely, even when she had said she didn't hate her. "I have thousands of questions, but I'm afraid of the answers. She'll drop the bomb at some point. I mean, the true meaning of all this. It must be something bad. They want me for something. They wouldn't create someone like me just for … well, just for being a high school girl."

"Yeah…" Konami sighed. Cost of five billion yen didn't sound good. "Maybe they want you to be a special agent, working for them. For government."

"What a cliché," Akane sighed. Yet, this cliché felt worryingly real.

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><p>See the Author Notes at the end of the first chapter for character descriptions and about what happened to the original characters after Dare! story.<p>

Did someone say there can't be slice of life with cyborgs and stuff? :D I think we just had.

I had to draw a diagram, and I'm still not sure how they are related. Akane was probably right: Yuno is Konami's half-grand aunt. Does something like that exist? And what's Konami to Yuno, then? Half-uh…what?

So Yuno is terrified of bugs and cockroaches.

A "touchpad" is a 2020's lightweight, powerful, cheap, sturdy, and compact computer, which also works as a portable telephone. All students have one, because books are mostly in digital form, and they do their homework on the touchpad.

I know a bit about sport fencing. I went through the basic training course, but I was already far too old to become any good, so I quit. There's historical fencing available in Finland, maybe I'll try that some day. (They teach longsword, smallsword, rapier, and many other weapons.)

With épée, you only have to hit your opponent one twenty-fifth of a second earlier than she hits you. There was this Swedish guy who kind of ruined the sport. _All_ he did was to concentrate on that: hitting your opponent just a little earlier than he hit you. Of course, he beat everyone up, and won Olympic gold medal at 1980 (and it's _incredibly_ hard to win in this sport). Sadly, this also meant the sport took another big step away from realistic duels.

Finally, some more trivia about the characters. A _lot_ could be written about Akane…

**Akane Shiraishi**

Akane's fashion sense is, if not bad, at least old-fashioned. She wears things like orange harem pants, or a plaid shirt and jeans.

Akane is left-handed. Her blood type is artificial cyborg blood, which circulates in her artificial outer tissue, keeping it warm (and also helps cooling her system), and gives the illusion of bleeding if necessary. Her artificial digestion system automatically manufactures this "blood". Its color comes from hemoglobin like in real blood, but her blood doesn't need to transport oxygen. In fact, Akane needs _far_ less oxygen than humans. She can "hold her breath" for hours if necessary. She doesn't know this yet, though. Akane's blood is also artificial blood which could be transfused to any mammal without any adverse effects. Her body contains less blood than human body; about three liters or so. If fed iron-rich organic material and other components orally, she could be bled infinitely without harming her. In 2020's, this same artificial blood is commonly available and its manufacturing is not very different from how Akane's body creates it.

**Konami Izumi**

Like one of her mothers, Konami is ambidextrous, but prefers the right hand. Her blood type is B.

**Tomoe Tamura**

Tomoe is left-handed. Her blood type is A.

**Yuno Izumi**

Yuno likes Konami a bit too much, considering that they are close relatives.

Yuno has a phobia about icky bugs and cockroaches. Cicadas don't bother her nearly that much, for some reason.

Yuno is right-handed. Her blood type is AB.


	7. Art

**Dare! the Next Generation: Chapter 7: Art**

This is the sequel of Lucky Star: Truth or Dare and Lucky Star: Dare! fics. So I'd better WARN YOU: there are lots of OCs around. All the main characters are OCs. That's because they are the descendants of (some) of the original Lucky Star characters. It's year 2024, and the main characters are high school freshmen, at Ryōō High where their parents used to go.

I should also warn you that this is getting pretty far from Lucky Star. The happy-go-lucky times of Lucky Star are long in the past. This is not a slice of life story (I think…?).

I don't own Lucky Star (nor the V*caloids).

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><p>Birds were singing extra loud that morning, and she couldn't sleep any longer. As she often did, she had had a sleepover at Izumi-Hiiragi mansion. She even had her own room at this house because she visited them so often. After all, two of her close relatives, Konata, her step-sister-aunt, and Konami, her little-step-cousin-sister, lived there.<p>

So, Yuno opened her eyes, saw that it was barely five o'clock in the morning, sighed, sat up, slipped fluffy pink slippers into her feet, and stretched her bare arms. She didn't wear pajamas – in fact she disliked wearing _anything_ when she slept. She also enjoyed her family members' shock when they surprised her in the nude. Especially when it was her twin brother Ryūji, who always blushed and looked away, or Konami, who stared shamelessly at her. Maybe Konami even took pictures with her computer goggles. Yuno wasn't sure, but she didn't mind even if she did.

This morning, she felt especially mischievous, and decided to go all the way into the bathroom wearing nothing but slippers. Unfortunately the first person she met in the hallway was Kagami Hiiragi. She should have known, though, that nobody else would be awake this early.

"What is the meaning of this, young woman?" Kagami growled, and swiftly snatched Yuno's ear into her iron grasp. "You are not allowed to walk around the house like that! You are sixteen years old, and not a baby anymore!"

Kagami dragged Yuno back into her room by her ear, forced her to wear a bathrobe, and made her listen to a lecture about proper chastity and demeanor.

She took her most innocent expression and directed her puppy ears at Kagami while she apologized and promised never to do that again, while keeping her fingers crossed behind her back.

After she finally got rid of Kagami, went to bathroom, and brushed her pink hair, she decided it was time to wake up Konami. It was unfair that she still slept when Yuno didn't. So she sneaked into Konami's room, yanked her covers off and jumped on her. Because she had had to listen to a lecture this early, Konami would have to do that as well. "Wake up! Raise and shine! Like your mother said, the early bird catches the worm! Early to bed and early to rise, makes a woman healthy, wealthy and wise! Lose a hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it! –"

"Uhh …" Konami groaned. "My mother says, you should just do what you want, dear."

While she was trying to wrestle Konami off of her bed, Yuno had made sure her negligee was getting loose and showing significant amount of her bare flesh. To her disappointment, Konami wasn't paying any attention. She wasn't even looking. "She's your mother's wife so she should obey her!" she kept on lecturing Konami. Though, she had to pause for a moment, because that last statement sounded so odd. "…uh, which one of them is the wife, actually?"

"Both of them work and both of them do chores; Konata cooks and Kagami cleans up…what other criteria there is to determine which one is the wife…" Konami muttered. She was a bit too sleepy to think of these things right now, though.

Yuno sighed, stopped struggling with Konami, and leaned her head on Konami's chest. "Umm…which one is dominant in the bed?" she whispered. Her head bounced up and down a bit as Konami chuckled. "I don't know, actually. I haven't dared to set up any cameras in their bedroom yet. If Kagami noticed…I don't even want to think of the punishment. Anyway, could you get off of me? I got to go to the bathroom."

Yuno sighed again, and clambered off of the bed. She readjusted her negligee and tied the belt.

Konami turned around at the door. "Oh, and by the way … your boobs have grown. Good job!" she exclaimed, and raised a thumb, before leaving.

Yuno blushed with delight. But she knew Konami didn't fancy her, in that way at least. Well, such was life. Time to set the sights for a new target! She decided to review her manga and anime collection for tips on how to proceed. Especially one part of her collection.

Yuri.

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"I want you to bully me at recess so that Tomoe sees it," Yuno explained.

It was next week at school, and Yuno had cornered one of the delinquent boys from another class at the shoe lockers. In fact, he was one of those who had tried to bully Konami once. "E-excuse me?" he gasped.

"Gather a few mates and act like you were bullying me at recess, but so that Tomoe will see it," Yuno repeated.

"No way!" the boy gasped. "She'll kill us!"

_"So what?"_ Yuno thought, but she didn't care to say it aloud. "If you don't do it, I'll tell her you groped me or something!" she hissed.

The boy turned pale. "B-but that would be even worse! She'd _seriously_ kill me!"

"Well, you got two choices, then. Either she kills you or she seriously kills you."

"This is blackmail!" the boy groaned.

"Yes, it is. Remember, Tomoe has to be nearby. Now, scram, before anyone sees me talking to you!" Yuno commanded.

Disheartened, the boy walked away, shaking his head and muttering under his brow.

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Meanwhile, Konami and Akane had arrived to the art class early. Today there would be a drawing lesson. For now they had drawn stuff on touchpads. Akane had never liked that and she thought her digital drawings weren't any good. Not that she thought her pencil and ink drawings were any good either. It would take much more than just her friends' word to believe it.

Today she had carried a sketchbook to school, knowing that they didn't use such old-fashioned things anymore. Sighing, she slipped the sketchbook back into her bag.

"I can't draw on touchpad … I wish we'd draw with pencils sometime," she sighed.

Konami was tipping her chair back and had lifted her feet onto the table. The little bluenette was even more of a nuisance during art classes, because, _"It's art,"_ as she explained it. "Hey Akane, if I could draw as well as you, I'd be asking all my friends to pose for me!"

Akane's jaw dropped and she gasped like a fish out of water. What a perfect opportunity to ask her the question she had been thinking from the first day she met her and her other new friends. But the words just simply didn't come out. Her face just turned more and more red.

Konami had a mischievous glint in her eye. "Well? Would you like me, Tomo-chan, and Yuno to pose for you?" she asked innocently.

"…Y…yes!" Akane managed to croak. "I've always wanted to!"

"Really? Why didn't you just ask?"

Fortunately Akane didn't have to answer because their teacher entered, carrying a large pile of books and a big oblong case on her back.

"Yo, teach!" Konami greeted her.

"Izumi…" art teacher, Yamaguchi-sensei sighed. "That's not the way to greet your teacher!"

"Class rep is absent," Konami explained.

"And that's not an explanation!" But all the teachers already knew Konami was incurable. Besides, she was too cute and Yamaguchi-sensei could never be mad at her. Other students had all bolted up from their seats and were bowing properly.

"Anyway, sensei, why are you carrying a torpedo?" Konami asked.

Yamaguchi-sensei placed the pile of books onto her desk, adjusted her glasses, and answered, "Because it's such a nice day, I thought that we would go outside and sketch – on paper. I have pencils and sketchbooks for everyone. These had been lying in the storage, unused, for years. Oh, and this work will be graded, so take it seriously."

The class stirred and started to murmur and mutter. Konami's eyes brightened.

"Great idea, sensei! You know, Akane-chan here said –"

Akane slapped her palm on Konami's mouth, and hissed, "Ssssshhh!"

"She's what?" Yamaguchi-sensei asked.

"Uh, I … I felt like I needed fresh air! So it's good that we're going outside," Akane quickly explained, still holding Konami's mouth. Despite the fact that she was now licking her palm, which made Akane squirm.

"You in the front," sensei said to the students in the front row, "take the books and pens and distribute them. Remember to write your name on them, and leave some pages unused today because we are using them again later."

Akane yanked her hand away and started to search for a tissue. "Eww," she muttered. "That was icky."

Konami licked her lips and grinned lewdly. "You taste delicious!"

"Eww!" Akane said again. However, now she became curious. What did she taste like, indeed? Her skin looked completely real but she knew it was artificial. She remembered learning that taste was more dependent on someone's sense of smell than the actual sense of taste.

Deep in thoughts, she wiped her palm dry, gathered her sketchbook and pens – her own, that is, forgetting that they were just given some by the school – and followed Konami outside.

Her senses were all artificial, so how could she know how she tasted to Konami? She really didn't want to ask, either. As far as she knew, her skin tasted slightly salty…and that's about it. Her hand wouldn't have a particular flavor. Some other parts, on the other hand…

She realized she was starting to blush and tried to stop this chain of thought. Now she remembered how Konami's tongue had felt against her palm. As far as she knew, her sense of touch should not have been superior to human. But her hands were much more sensitive than, say, her arm. That wet, soft, warm and nimble tongue tickling her palm … how would it feel if she … if that tongue … _"No, no! Do NOT think of that!"_

Now she noticed that Konami was looking at her. Did she guess what she was thinking about? If she did, she fortunately didn't crack any jokes about it.

"Ain't that a pretty spot?" Konami said, pointing at a little clearing in the middle of ginkgo trees in the back yard of the school. Sun was shining and there were two large rocks which were perfect for leaning on while they sat on the grass.

"It is …" Akane said, a bit absent-mindedly. Konami spread a blanket onto the grass and sat down, and Akane sat down beside her. "Uh, where did you get a blanket?"

"There's a room teachers go to take naps in secret. I borrowed it from there," Konami explained.

"You sure know all the secrets in this school," Akane noted.

"Well, my parents are alumni. And there are discussion forums and stuff. Is this a good pose?"

Akane's sketchbook slipped from her fingers and she stared at Konami. She was sitting with her legs pointing to the side, and wiggled her cute bare toes – at which point she took her shoes off? – leaned onto her right hand, and was combing her hair with the other.

"G-great!" Akane gasped. "Hey, aren't you supposed to draw something as well?"

"We've got plenty of time. I'll do you when you're finished."

"You mean, draw me?" Akane muttered. Embarrassing, but since she was drawing Konami, it was only fair. Probably.

Quickly, she sketched Konami's outlines onto the paper, paying attention to her proportions. That hair would take a while to do properly.

She immersed into drawing and forgot about everything else. After a while, she didn't even have to look at Konami; she could see her best pose in her mind is if it was a high-quality 3D photograph. Maybe it was another "cyborg" ability?

"Whoa! That looks great!" Tomoe's voice said, right behind her.

Akane screamed and slammed the sketchbook close. Yuno and Tomoe had sneaked from behind and taken a peek. And they had downwind, so Akane's super-scent had warned her about it.

"This isn't done yet! I don't want anyone to look!" Akane groaned.

"How long does it take?" Tomoe asked. "I mean, we both finished already. Though I don't think we did very well."

"Drawing a portrait? Takes an hour or two, at least. Now, could you two please leave, so that I can finish!"

Tomoe and Yuno looked at each other, then at Konami. She waved her hand, shooing the curious duo away.

After they were gone, Akane returned to her drawing. It was almost ready anyway, requiring just a few finishing touches. And she still didn't want to show it to anyone. Not even to Konami.

"Sorry, it failed," she sighed. "Wait here, I'll just rip it into shreds and throw it into trash –"

"What?" Konami gasped, and bolted up. "No way! You worked so hard on it. At least show it to me –"

"I don't want to!" Akane yelled, and ran behind a tree. "It's embarrassing! If it's bad, everyone will laugh at me…"

The other option wasn't any better. If that was a great drawing, then she would be the center of attention.

"Okay, but don't destroy it yet. At least let the teacher have a look at it, okay?"

"Fine," Akane sighed. Maybe she'd at least get grade D or something. She closed the sketchbook, walked back and sat down onto the blanket.

Konami sat down beside her. "Do you want to draw another or –"

"No. I did what I could already. It's your turn. Y-you said you wanted me to, uh, pose for you?"

Thinking of it made Akane blush already. She hoped Konami wouldn't draw the blush.

"Yeah! So?" Konami asked, looking expectantly at Akane.

"W-what?"

"Off with the clothes! Just take it all off!"

"Definitely not!"

Konami chuckled. "That joke is a given in this school!"

"No, it isn't!"

"Anyway, you don't have to be so stiff. Just relax. I think you should lie down."

Akane eyed Konami with some suspicion, but did what she asked. She lied down on her belly, leaning onto her arms, and crossed her legs. "Is this good?"

"Great! Just hold on for a moment. Okay, you can change your pose now."

"What, why? You didn't even draw anything!"

"I think that pose is too hard for me. I'll have to see a few more poses before I decide."

Konami made Akane try half a dozen other poses.

"Wait a minute! Are you taking photographs of me?" Akane groaned.

"Why, of course. It'll be much easier to copy a photograph onto the paper than draw from memory. I can zoom and project the image in my goggles and –"

"That's cheating! I'm going to tell on you to the teacher!"

"It's not like I'm printing anything. I'm going to draw it by hand –"

"Take those goggles off and draw!" Akane growled. Although now she wasn't quite so sure anymore. Had she herself just cheated, by looking at the 'photograph' she seemed to have in her mind. Or did she just have a photographic memory? She couldn't remember if she had been able to do that before the accident.

Konami gulped. Akane could be scary when she was really becoming angry. "Okay, okay. Look, the goggles are coming off now. Could you take that first pose again? It was actually pretty cute."

_"Why didn't I ask Wakase to turn off blushing!"_ Akane groaned in her mind as she was lying down again. She was certain Konami would draw it.

Akane found out she could keep a pose indefinitely. Had she still had a human body, she would have needed to change position, stretch her limbs and so on. Now, she could just position her arms and legs forget about it, and keep still for as long as she liked to. Sp she let her mind wander and enjoyed the sunlight and the warmth. Akane still didn't think she preferred this body, but at least it had some advantages.

"Done!" Konami chirped.

"Already?" Akane asked. She had taken barely half an hour.

Unlike Akane, Konami had no objections of showing her work to anyone, so she shoved it at Akane.

It was certainly interesting. It depicted a grotesque, bloated thing with four pseudopod-like things extending from its body. The only things that could vaguely bring Akane in mind were two tangled twin-tails the creature had. And the blush, of course.

"This is horrible!" Akane groaned.

"Sorry … but you didn't let me use the goggles and I haven't tried drawing on paper for years –"

"Also, do you think I'm this fat?"

"No, not at all!"

"Or is this supposed to depict my nature or something?"

"No, no! It's just that I'm bad at drawing. Like, on the paper, I mean."

Akane wasn't quite convinced, but by now there wasn't enough time for Konami to draw another one, so they started walking back to the school.

Teacher asked everyone to leave their sketchbook for assessment.

"Shiraishi-kun? I didn't see you leaving yours into the pile," Yamaguchi-sensei noted, just as Akane was about to slip away.

Normally, Yamaguchi-sensei was anything but observant.

Akane bowed, and said, "I'm sorry, teacher, but my drawing failed. It is no good and I don't want anyone to see it."

"Now you made me interested! Come on, bring me this failed drawing. You'll get an F otherwise!" sensei commanded.

Sighing, Akane walked up to sensei and handed her the sketchbook.

Akane turned redder and redder as she had to stand in front of the class and wait for the teacher to finish. She kept staring at the picture far too long.

"Did she space out?" Konami chirped.

Finally, Yamaguchi-sensei spoke. "I don't think you failed. Because, technically, this is perfect. It's like the work of a professional artist. So I'm grading it A+."

The class muttered and murmured. This teacher didn't give 'A plusses' easily.

"…but?" Akane asked. She had been right. There _was_ something badly wrong with the drawing.

Sensei closed the sketchbook and handed it back to Akane. "If you wish to hear whether there's anything _wrong_ with this, I'll tell you in private. The rest of class, you can go."

Konami didn't leave with the others, but walked to Akane's side. Yamaguchi-sensei looked at her questioningly, but since Akane didn't seem to object, she spoke. "A high school student is not expected to be a full-fledged artist. You truly deserve the grade. The only things that are lacking in that drawing are refinement, experience, insight, a _vision_. Things that you will develop. If you want to apply into an art college, I'd say you have an excellent chance to pass."

"That's a relief," Konami sighed. "For a moment, I thought there really was something wrong with it!"

Akane ignored her and said, "Thank you, but I'm ... probably not going for an art college."

"Well, this is only your first year of high school. So you've got some time to consider your options."

As they were walking away, Konami grabbed Akane's arm and leaned on her. "You are amazing, Akane! You excel in everything you do –"

"No! No, I don't … didn't you hear what she said? I failed. I draw like a computer. A machine. And that's what I am."

This silenced Konami for a while. Finally, she whispered, "But isn't a brain the thing that makes us human? And you still got your brain?"

"Yeah. Me, a lump of tissue inside a metal –" Akane stopped walking and her jaw fell open.

"What, what's wrong?"

"Nothing … I just realized what 'BIAJ' means."

"BIAJ? Oh, that abbreviation in the manual?"

"Brain in a jar."

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"Tomo-chan, help me!" Tomoe heard Yuno's voice calling her from around a corner. It was recess after the art classes and lunch.

She ran to the direction of the shout and saw three boys pushing Yuno around and calling her with names such as "Pink-hair", "Miss Ryōō High", and "Posh Queen". The boys looked oddly hesitant.

The instant they saw Tomoe, two of the boys ran away. One of them screamed, "Please, don't kill us!" and dropped onto his knees, kowtowing at Tomoe. "She forced us to do it!"

"What, Yuno? You can't be serious. That would be crazy. Yuno wouldn't do anything like that, would you?" Tomoe asked, turning to Yuno.

"N-no, of course not …" Yuno said quietly. This wasn't the result she had wanted. "Let him go, Tomo-chan, it was nothing serious. I think they have learned their lesson. T-thanks for rescuing me …"

"Anything for my mates!" Tomoe exclaimed, and slapped Yuno on the back.

The boy scurried quietly away.

"Why didn't you smash their faces in, Yuno?" Tomoe asked. "I thought you got black belt in karate or something."

"Just aikido…" Yuno muttered. She used to go to the _dōjō _with Konami sometimes and she didn't really have a _dan_ yet.

"Oh, I understand. You wouldn't want to choke-hold or armlock those filthy boys."

Yuno wanted to sink through the ground and disappear. "Yeah … that's why I let them go. But let's just forget it. It was nothing."

Yuno sighed deeply as they walked towards the school front doors. She'd have to come up with another plan. As crafty as she was, lying to Tomoe had not felt good at all.

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Some day next week, they were having an excruciatingly hot and the AC of the class wasn't working properly. Everyone was half-asleep, including Kuroi-sensei, who didn't have the energy to even teach them. She told the class to research the exploits of Francis Xavier in Japan and to write an essay about it, slumped down behind her desk, and went into stupor.

They knew that when Kuroi-sensei was like this, they could talk and do whatever they wanted, as long as they didn't make too much noise.

Completely disinterested in the exploits of Xavier-sama, Konami pushed her touchpad away and whispered to Akane. "It's summer vacation soon. Do you have any plans for summer?"

_"OF COURSE NOT! Please, wherever you are going, take me with you!"_ Akane shouted in her mind. She turned to look at Konami, just to check whether she was mocking her, or maybe joking. Because of course she had no plans. She never had any plans, as she never had any friends to do anything with. And her parents were always away or arguing, and they had not gone anywhere together since … since she had the accident and got turned into a cyborg, she realized. Now, her parents seemed much happier. Maybe she'd need to talk to them.

She shook all these thoughts off and answered Konami. "Well, I might have … did you have something in mind?"

"Yeah. Tomoe is taking me and Yuno riding the first weekend of vacation, and I wondered whether you'd like to come with us?"

"Riding?"

"Yes. Horse riding. Well, Tomoe is riding a horse but I understood that we'd get ponies."

Going riding. That sounded only about the most awesome thing Akane could think of and she wanted to bounce with excitement.

"Pony riding. I guess I might come along. But I have to ask my parents first," Akane said, as it there was nothing to it.

Yuno was resting her head on the desk, grinning secretly. She had just come up with another plan. She would have to make her pony to have a fit and gallop into the woods or something. Then, Tomoe would ride after her and rescue her. She imagined a meadow in the middle of the woods, beside a waterfall or something, and there, in the middle of flowers, she would show Tomoe how grateful she is…it would be so romantic!

* * *

><p>Kisaragi Yamaguchi from GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class is their art teacher!<p> 


	8. Fun

**Dare! the Next Generation: Chapter 8: ****Fun**

This is the sequel of Lucky Star: Truth or Dare and Lucky Star: Dare! fics. So I'd better WARN YOU: there are lots of OCs around. All the main characters are OCs. That's because they are the descendants of (some) of the original Lucky Star characters. It's year 2024, and the main characters are high school freshmen, at Ryōō High where their parents used to go.

EDIT: Darn, it's hard when one of the characters is Konami and then there's Konata, who they talk about and who even appears in the story. I think I got those mix-ups fixed now.

* * *

><p>The bright summer sun woke Akane up. She sighed deeply and turned over, not wanting to get up. There was nothing to get up for. The few friends she had were her classmates, and it was summer vacation. She had already done most of her homework too. So there was nothing to do. Being what she was, she didn't need exercise. Besides, in the outside there would be people. Strangers. While she had become much, much more confident, she still didn't like being around other people. And who knew how many of them were government agents, observing her secretly.<p>

Akane groaned and got out of the bed. This was no good. If she kept this on, she would become crazy! She couldn't spend her entire summer alone, inside her room. True, they would have the trip to the horse ranch next week. But … what else? What do _normal_ people do on their summer vacation?

Maybe she should call Konami and ask? She tapped her touchpad and noticed that it was about six a.m., so Konami would still be asleep. Probably. And wouldn't calling her to ask about this already, on the second day of summer vacation, that was … lame. Desperate.

The doorbell rang. Nobody else was answering the door. So her parents were still away. Had they told her where they were going? She didn't remember. Come to think of it, they had wobbled to her door last night and blathered about something. Did they say they were going onto a trip? Good for them.

There was another ring. Oh yeah, the door. She should answer the door. Now, whoever was there, seemed to lean onto the doorbell. Yawning, Akane stumbled downstairs and opened the front door.

In was Konami. She dropped her bags and leaped onto her neck, yelling, "Akane-chann~! I missed you!"

Of course it was Konami. Who else would be here at this ungodly hour. Akane didn't try to push her off, since she was accustomed to the hugs, besides, it felt good … she just sighed, "What are you doing here?"

"I missed you!"

"You saw me the day before yesterday!"

Yes, Akane realized now, it was only the second day of their vacation.

"And I was worried that you were lonely."

"I'm accustomed – I mean, that doesn't bother – I meant, I already had lots of plans! With … with friends."

"Well, call them and say that they can come with us."

"Call, whom?" Akane asked, already fallen by the wayside.

Konami giggled, because Akane was so transparent. "Call the friends you had plans with. Because today we're going to the pool."

"We? Pool?" Akane gasped, and turned one degree brighter red. Going to the pool meant … bikinis. She wasn't confident with her body. Lately she had avoided looking at the mirror, because she feared that instead of a human, she'd see a creature from the Uncanny Valley.

"Yeah. Sorry about the short notice, but I just happened to called Tomo-chan and she said she had swimming training today, and that she could tell coach she'd go to the pool instead of the hall. I mean the big pool with waterslides and stuff, not ours. You should have seen Yuno-chan's face when she heard! She's still at home trying on all of her bikinis now, but we'll pick her up, Kaga-Mom will drive us, she's waiting outside right now, by the way, and then –"

"Slow down for a moment! I didn't even agree to go –" Akane paused, and tried to look as if she was thinking, "– but if you insist, I'll cancel my other plans and go with you!"

Konami turned serious. "Naah … you got plans already. We understand that you don't want to come."

"It's okay! My plans weren't that important!"

Of course, Konami was just teasing her. She had instantly guessed Akane had had no plans whatsoever.

"Anyway, why are you here so early?"

"You haven't cooked me breakfast yet," Konami explained.

"Oh. O-of course –" Akane gasped. "I-I meant, you can't just barge into someone's house at this hour and ask them to cook breakfast!" she quickly added, not wanting to look too eager to do this for Konami.

"Sorry. You are right, I shouldn't have come. I'll just head back home and grab something from the fridge –"

Akane grabbed Konami's sleeve and yelled, "Wait! Now that you are here, why don't I do it anyway? … c-cook breakfast, I mean."

"Are you sure? I just barged in so early and tried to ruin your plans, and then I even asked you to cook for me, just like that. I'm sorry for being such a terrible friend!" Konami pleaded, and bowed at Akane. "Next time, I'll ask you beforehand. See you at a more appropriate time–"

Akane groaned, grabbed Konami's arm before she got a chance to leave, dragged her into the kitchen, and pushed her towards a chair. "Sit!"

Obediently like a dog, Konami sat down.

"And stay there while I cook!"

"But, Akane-chan –"

"Hush!"

"Kaga-Mom's still waiting in the car. I think she hasn't had breakfast yet. Should I call her in as well?"

"What? Of course! Don't just leave her waiting there!"

Konami handed a plastic bag to Akane and started to fish out her touchpad. "Oh, and here's a bag of groceries. As a gift. Bacon, eggs, rice, natto, miso, pickles, and stuff."

"Oh! Thanks – what, so you were sure that I'd cook for you?" Akane groaned.

"Yeah, sort of."

Akane began to understand that she was easy to read. At least, for Konami she was.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

Seeing Konami's mother Kagami reminded Akane of the last time she had met her. It had been most awkward, and the memory made her blush. Usually meeting someone for the first time doesn't involve the other fondling the other's bare bum. It looked like Konami's mom was blushing as well. At least Akane could keep herself busy with the stove and not face Kagami. "Honestly, Konami. I said we are too early and I certainly didn't mean your friend would have to cook for us –"

"It's no problem! It's only fair if you're giving us a ride!" Akane quickly said.

"Mom, she's an awesome cook! Wait till you get to taste her stuff. You'll fire our chef and hire her instead!"

"We don't have a hired chef!" Kagami groaned. "Akane-kun, don't listen to her. We are not snobs."

"I know, I have visited your house," Akane answered. "I mean … uh, that came out a bit wrong …"

"Never mind," Kagami sighed. The truth was, their house wasn't always as clean as she'd liked to.

"It's ready. Mind you, this isn't anything special … just the usual miso soup, rice, pickles, an omelet, some asparagus wrapped in fried bacon, and sashimi …" Akane muttered, as she was placing the cups and plates on the table.

Whether simple or not, all of it looked and smelled amazing.

"You made your own broth?" Kagami gasped.

"She does all of it herself! I wouldn't be surprised if Akane made her own bacon!" Konami exclaimed.

"Bacon comes from pigs. It isn't 'made'," Akane muttered.

"It's amazing how quickly you made all this," Kagami noted. "And your kitchen is so clean already. When Konata cooks, she makes a terrible mess. And while it's good food, it's nowhere near this…"

"I bet if Akane used her super-speed, she'd cook even faster! It'd take, like, five seconds to make breakfast!" Konami yelled.

"SSSSHH!" Akane hissed at Konami, who turned pale as she realized Kagami didn't know about Akane.

Kagami chuckled. "She thinks you got superpowers, Akane? She's like Konata, sometimes. Both of them live in their own little worlds."

Akane sighed in relief. "Yeah. They are both weird … not that I don't like them! I do!"

"Who wouldn't? They are so very, very cute …" Kagami cooed, and ruffled Konami's hair. Then, she blushed and cleared her throat. "Um, anyway! This food is truly great! If we do hire a chef some day, we would love to hire you."

"Thanks, though, I'm not probably going to become a chef …" Akane muttered. What _was_ she going to become, anyway? She might not be able to choose her own path. It could well have been decided for her. By those who owned her … or had paid for her, at least.

"Kaga-Mom would like to have seconds, please," Konami chirped.

Kagami glared at her daughter, and blushed a bit, but then she handed her empty plate to Akane without comments. She knew from the experience that anything she said would only lead to more teasing.

"Oh, and me too," Konami added, handing her plate as well. "I've taken care of my lines and I think this won't make the bikini look too bad on me."

Akane and Kagami seemed to compete on the brightness of their blush. Both were obviously thinking of themselves in a bikini. And both glared angrily at Konami when she burst into laughter.

Kagami turned to Konami. "Anyway, Konami. You should be more considerate. This morning, I woke up at half past five, she was bouncing on us in our bedroom, and telling me that I'd have to drive them to the pool. You knew about this yesterday, right? Why didn't you tell your parents?"

"I did! I e-mailed Kona-mom right away!" Konami protested.

"Why didn't you send the same e-mail to me as well?"

"Well … I forgot!"

"Is that because one of your moms says 'You should do whatever you want', and the other doesn't?"

"Of course not! It was an honest mistake!"

Kagami sighed. Not that she had anything to do today. Konata was on her vacation at the moment, which meant, she would only wake up some time at afternoon. _Late_ afternoon.

"Since you girls are all underage, you need a chaperone. So I'm going to the pool with you."

"But –" Konami tried to say something.

"No buts!"

Then, both of them got full plates of seconds, and stopped talking. It became a very long and thorough breakfast. They all had to take a nap in Shiraishi living room afterwards.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

"I'm ready!" Akane shouted, and ran to the car where Konami and Kagami were already waiting.

"Why did you have to go back inside at the last minute?" Konami asked.

"Never mind that, I'm ready to go."

Akane climbed onto the back seat with Konami, who kept eyeing her.

"Why are you giving me the eye?" Akane muttered.

Konami poked her shoulder with her finger and exclaimed, "Ah! I can guess it! You went back and put on your swimsuit. Or bikini? Tell me it's bikini!"

"Yeah … but how did you know?"

"You are so shy that you didn't want to come to the changing room with everyone. Well?"

"Uh, I suppose so …"

"So is it a bikini or isn't it?"

"Does it matter whether it is a bikini or a swimsuit!" Akane groaned. "I only had a bikini. But it's not like I want guys … or anyone … to watch. That's the least of my worries."

"Oh, what's wrong, then?"

"I haven't been swimming for three years. Swimming lessons at middle high ended before I … you know."

"So what – ah!" Konami gasped. She leaned closer and whispered, "So you haven't tried swimming like … like you are now. I wonder if you can float at all. Maybe you'll sink like a hammer."

"Yep, that's what I thought. But, I won't drown, at least."

"You won't?"

"Yeah. I tried it in the bath the other day. I mean, I drew a breath and put my head underwater. And then … I just felt comfortable. I didn't feel an urge to breathe at all."

"That's amazing!"

"Ssh!" Akane hissed, and glanced at Kagami. Apparently she was concentrating on driving, though, and didn't seem to listen. "First, I tried ten minutes … then twenty. I think I could have stayed underwater for hours. But I'm not sure whether I float or not."

Konami grabbed Akane's hand and looked at it, and then turned it wrist up. She also tried to peek inside the sleeve of Akane's pink T-shirt, at which point Akane yelped and yanked her hand away.

"What are you doing, you pest?" she murmured.

"Oh, I just searched for tan lines. Do you tan at all?"

"I'm not sure. It wasn't a very sunny spring and I didn't spend that much time outside…"

She didn't add the reasons: because there was nobody to hang around with and her home didn't have a balcony or a garden – or a real yard, even.

"Compared to a older pictures of you," Konami explained, fiddling with the controls, while pictures floated in her goggles, "I think you do get tanned –"

"You've been taking pictures of me all the time?" Akane sighed.

"Why, of course! It's essential to have a large library of pictures and videos!"

"Pictures and … videos? And why exactly is that _essential?_"

At that point, the car slowed down, then stopped. "Oh," Konami noted, "Looks like we're home already! Let's go!"

She scurried off before Akane could squeeze answers out of her. Akane pursued her upstairs and into Yuno's room, where they barged in without knocking.

Akane stopped, blushed brightly and turned her eyes away, because inside was half-naked Yuno, surrounded by a dozen different bikinis on the floor, standing in front of a full-body mirror.

She didn't seem to mind, instead, she held two bikini tops in front of her, and said, "Oh, it's you two. I've narrowed the choice to these two. Which one do you think looks sexier on me?"

Akane accidentally took a look. Not only Yuno's face was the image of pure perfection, her body was that of a goddess as well. From the cutest little toes to those delicious thighs to her flat tummy to her perky … Akane quickly turned her head away again, just before she would become hypnotized.

Konami, completely oblivious, was rummaging through the discarded bikinis. "Some of these are mine, I think. They are too small for you, you know."

"I-if you need to know what's, uh, s-sexier, I'd say the pink one …" Akane muttered.

"I suppose so," Yuno agreed. "Black doesn't suit me anyway. Thanks, Akane-chan."

"Why does she need a 'sexy' bikini anyway?" Akane whispered to Konami as they were going downstairs. Yuno had said she'd follow them in a few minutes.

"She's got the hots for Tomo-chan," Konami whispered back.

Akane suddenly had a coughing fit. Konami slapped her back a few times.

"Why did they install coughing fits," Akane groaned, when she was able to speak again.

"But that's just amazing, too. Who would even think of that?"

"Oh, they thought of all sorts of weird things … anyway, what did you just say? She has the hots for …?"

"Yeah, haven't you noticed?"

"No, I mean … Yuno actually, sort of, told me. I just blocked it off of my mind."

"Oh, what did she tell you?" Konami asked, looking quite curious now.

"Never mind that! That's bygones!" Akane exclaimed, with emphasis. "If she's … got the 'hots' for Tomoe, I'm perfectly fine with that. We, I mean, they are just a bit too young, I think. This isn't the time for anything like that."

Akane sighed deeply and fell silent. Konami eyed her, but didn't talk about this subject for the rest of the trip to the pool.

"_I wonder when it is the time for something like that. For me? And, for me … is that even possible? I'm not even a human ... but if this body was based on sex dolls … yech! …"_

Akane forced herself to stop the line of thought before it got too disturbing.

As the car stopped on the parking lot of the pool, they saw Tomoe, in a swimsuit, already waving at them.

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Akane ended up going into the dressing room with the others anyway, because she didn't even want to take of her T-shirt and jeans in public. Just as she was about to pull the shirt off, she noticed Konami, and growled at her, "Take those goggles off first!"

Konami sighed and pulled her goggles off. "Aww … I don't have that many clips of you stripping, you know."

Akane glared at Konami, until she put the goggles into her bag and started taking her clothes off as well.

Somehow she felt that all of them were staring. And what was Tomoe even doing here, for she was wearing her swimsuit already? And why was even Kagami staring at her? Her expression was a bit odd, too.

"Stop staring at me!" she groaned.

The others looked more or less guilty, and turned their eyes away. She pulled her shirt off, revealing a yellow polka dot bikini. Since she had not been swimming for over two years, she had not bought any swimwear for two years either, so all she had was this. And it was just slightly too small, as well, which made it even more embarrassing. She kicked her jeans off of her feet, quickly wrapped her large military camouflage patterned towel around her, and slipped her feet into the bright pink beach sandals.

The others had changed their clothes as well. Discreetly, Akane checked them up as well, because, of course, she was curious too. Konami looked like a child, as expected, with almost no curves whatsoever. She skipped looking at Yuno because she already knew how perfect she looked, and moved onto Tomoe instead. A perfect body, of a different kind – she was muscular, with very little fat in her body, yet managing to keep a nice pair of B cups. Finally, there was Kagami. She looked very fit for her age, very well preserved. And her bust was the largest of them all.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Konami whispered into her ear. "Kona-mom told me her boobs grew when she was expecting me. She's still thankful for that!"

Akane didn't even flinch. She was becoming used to Konami's uncanny ability to notice what she thinking. Besides, she had something to ask from her.

"How about me?" she whispered. "No, I don't mean boobs. I mean, do I look like a normal person? Like a human? Is there anything weird you could see?"

"Hm. Not sure," Konami whispered, and then turned to yell to the others, "You guys go ahead, we'll be right there!"

Tomoe nodded and walked out, and, of course, Yuno right on her tail. Kagami looked at Konami and Akane, shrugged her shoulders, and followed them.

Akane was left alone with Konami. Not that it usually bothered her, but this was a new situation. She immediately felt her cheeks burning again.

"I can't see anything if you don't unwrap that towel," Konami noted.

"Oh," Akane gasped, and let the towel fall. She blushed even brighter when Konami started to feast on her with her eyes.

"You are covering yourself with your hands."

Slowly, Akane let her hands drop on her sides.

"Turn around, slowly," Konami commanded.

"Niice…" she heard Konami mutter, when she was turning around. She spun around again and groaned, "I hope you are looking at me for the right reasons!"

"Oh, sure. For that, and other reasons!"

"That's enough!" Akane growled, picked up her towel and wrapped it around herself again.

Konami sighed, and said, "Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I don't see anything wrong, even at this close. You are totally indistinguishable from any person. To be really sure, you'd have to take your bikini off –"

Akane threw daggers at Konami with her eyes, turned around, and stomped into the showers.

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There had not been many sunny days lately, so the pool was quite crowded. And nobody was paying attention to Akane. She didn't know whether she should be relived or sad. Even when she unwrapped her towel and sat on a lounger to enjoy the sun, nobody seemed to be looking.

Although, now someone was blocking the sun. "Move, Konami," she muttered. She could easily smell it was her without opening her eyes.

"Oh, sorry. You got the last lounger," Konami sighed.

"That's too bad. You can have this next, but I'm not moving for a while."

"And no, we won't share this," she added, because she thought Konami would ask that next. "Come back in fifteen minutes and I'll go swimming with you, okay?"

She opened an eye slightly and noticed Konami was about to lie down on the ground on top of her towel. She was about to say something about it, but decided to leave it. Her towel would be smelling of Konami now, but, she could smell everything anyway. Didn't make much difference.

Kagami was reclining on the lounger next to hers, and Yuno and Tomoe seemed to be heading for a swim. Akane closed her eyes again and enjoyed the warmth.

Tomoe swam a few pool lengths on the lane reserved for athletes, while Yuno sat on the edge of the pool, splashing the water with her feet and admiring Tomoe's body. And her incredible swimming.

Yuno attracted a lot of attention, and one boy even came to say something to her, but she didn't listen or pay any attention. She had too much things in her mind. Namely, how to seduce Tomoe. Maybe a scene where she was drowning and Tomoe would rescue her?

Even for her love of Tomoe, Yuno would fake a real situation. Besides, there was a lifeguard sitting on a tall chair at the side of the pool. "Tomo-chan? What if I was in the deep end, over there, and I had a cramp or something?" she asked, when Tomoe took a break.

"No worries! I'd call the lifeguard, of course," Tomoe answered.

"Umm … what if there was no lifeguard? If there was just you and me?"

"I'd rescue you, of course. We swimmers all have gone through the basic course of that stuff."

"Wow! Amazing! C-could you show me how it's done? Like, if I go there and pretend that I have a cramp or something and you'd rescue me!" Yuno panted.

"Well, I suppose … but we'd better tell the lifeguard first."

"_Oh yeah!" _Yuno screamed, in her mind. They walked around the pool together and Tomoe greeted the lifeguard, "Yo, Mariko!"

Yuno glared at them as Tomoe explained this 'Mariko' what they were about to do. Tomoe knew far too many attractive girls to her liking. At least this lifeguard was far too old for her. In her 20's, probably.

Mariko started to climb down, saying, "Sure, it's okay. You'll do this with your friend, Yuno-san? I'll come to clear a lane for you."

They followed the lifeguard to the edge of the pool. She blew her whistle and yelled, "Hey, everyone on this lane, could you please move? My friends here will demonstrate how to rescue a drowning person, so feel free to watch and learn!"

Great. An audience. That wasn't what Yuno had hoped for. When people saw _who_ Tomoe was going to rescue, they soon got a huge crowd.

"Okay, Yuno-san here will have a cramp while she's swimming and needs to be rescued. Tomoe-san will then show you all how it's done!" Mariko announced.

Before jumping in, Yuno adjusted her bikini top a bit, which instilled delighted murmuring, and several camera sounds from the crowd. She glared at the audience – not having intended to give them fan service – and dived gracefully into the pool.

Akane opened her eyes slightly. "What's the ruckus about?"

"Yuno is being rescued by Tomoe," Konami explained.

Akane concluded that there was no real trouble, because Konami didn't rush off, and closed her eyes again.

Yuno had swum to about the middle of the pool and began splashing the water and yelling for help.

With the practiced style of a swimmer, Tomoe dived in and, with just a few elegant front crawl strokes, reached Yuno. Just like a drowning person would do, Yuno clawed and groped at Tomoe, to keep herself surfaced. Tomoe dived and went around her, to approach her from behind. Swiftly, she hooked her arm around Yuno's chest, and began a sidestroke back towards the start.

Yuno sighed contentedly and relaxed. Tomoe's arm was wrapped just below her breasts, slightly touching them. "My hero…" she whispered. Finally, she was on Tomoe's arms! Granted, there really wasn't anything intimate in this situation, but it was better than nothing. Tomoe had not exactly been eager to touch Yuno, to her disappointment.

But it was over far too quickly for Yuno's liking. Tomoe reached the ladder and helped Yuno up, then bowed at the audience which cheered and applauded – and took more photographs.

It had been great, but Yuno was far from satisfied. At first, she'd at least want to have some mouth-to-mouth, so to speak. _"Damn, Tomo-chan, why did you have to take this so professionally? You are too chivalrous, you didn't even grope me while you had a chance."_

But, Tomoe was Tomoe. If she was not chivalrous, Yuno knew she might not even be interested.

In any case, for the rest of the day, Yuno had a great big grin on her face. The others were a bit creeped by it, even, except for Tomoe, who didn't notice anything unusual.

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Akane opened her eyes, yawned, and stretched her arms. Not that she felt a need to yawn, or that her arms needed stretching. These were recollections of things she did in her life before. But, they were humanlike maneuvers, and her goal was to act as humanlike as possible.

"You coming?" she asked Konami.

Knowing how pure Akane still was, Konami didn't crack any jokes – this time. She only chuckled to herself, said, "Sure," and stood up.

Kagami opened her eyes and looked at them, but didn't say anything. Akane had a strange feeling that Kagami had her eyes glued on her for some reason.

It turned out Akane did sink, but she could float by drawing a very deep breath. She had not forgotten how to swim, and undoubtedly, if she used her full muscle power, she could beat any Olympic champion in swimming easily.

Also, she found out she could control her diving by adjusting the amount of air she kept in her … lungs, or whatever was the device inside her that was acting like lungs. Her sense of smell worked equally well while submerged, and her eyes adjusted perfectly so that she could see completely clearly underwater, something ordinary humans are incapable of.

With all the other people around, she didn't dare to experiment very much, so she plopped back onto the surface and hung onto the inner tube Konami was floating on.

"Cool. So you can hold your breath underwater, see perfectly, adjust your buoyancy … you're like a human-shaped submarine," Konami whispered, after Akane had explained the results of her experiments to her.

"Yeah. Though there were some things I didn't want to see down there…"

Konami winked an eye. "Some guys would be ecstatic to have abilities like that –"

"I don't even want to think of that!"

Konami giggled, and asked, "Anyway, want to try the water slide? It's one of the longest in Tokio."

"Sure, why not."

Lazily, they floated back to the ladder and got out of the pool.

One thing Akane had not lost was her mild fear of heights. She felt a bit dizzy looking down from the top of the slide.

"Uh. You go first," she told Konami, who didn't have anything against going first.

Tomoe was next in line, ushering Akane to go as well, so she couldn't spend too much time to summon her courage. Following Konami's example, she sat down and pushed herself into the slide, feet first.

The slide felt unusually fast. Maybe it was a property her artificial skin or something, but she was indeed sliding down much faster than Konami. So fast that she gained on her quickly, and around the middle of the slide, in one of the large horizontal loops, she caught up with her.

"Whoa! What are you doing, Akane!" Konami gasped.

They got entangled with each other, and were spinning from side to side. Akane tried to push Konami away, but only managed to get her fingers caught with Konami's bikini top, which was ripped away.

Still entangled together, they fell out of the waterslide and into the pool. Konami's bikini top followed them a few seconds later.

Akane was as red as a tomato, but she was also incapacitated by laughter, while Konami tried to both cover herself and to get to her missing piece of clothing.

It took a while before Akane was able to speak. "That was a blast! Let's go again?" she gasped.

"Okay, but now it's my turn to strip you on the way!" Konami groaned.

"Sorry, but that was just an accident!" Akane claimed, and doubled over in laughter again. "Besides, nobody was looking."

Tomoe came down the slide as well, creating a huge splash and covering everyone in a shower of pool water.

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"_Maybe this is too much. One shouldn't have this much fun packed in one vacation,"_ Akane thought.

Not that she was having fun yet, because they were still in the car. This time, it was Konata who was driving them to the horse ranch, where they would spend an entire weekend. By the amount of noise they made, Konami, Yuno, and Tomoe were having a great time on the back seat. They had crammed themselves onto the back seat and Akane had to ride shotgun.

So, Akane tried to have a conversation with Konata. It was difficult, because she only seemed to talk about anime, manga, and games. Things Akane was not too familiar with. And Konata's favorites were rather obscure as well. But, she had heard about how good an artist Akane was, and pleaded her to draw all sorts of things. Some of the things didn't sound appropriate for underage girls.

"No, I don't think I have tried to draw tentacles…" she sighed.

"It's easy! You can use an octopus as a model. Or earthworms!" Konata suggested.

"Eww! No thanks."

At least Konata didn't elaborate on why she wanted to see tentacles, and Akane was blissfully unaware of the genre.

"Nice tan, by the way," Konata noted, eyeing Akane.

Indeed, Akane _could_ tan. In fact, she had tanned really fast. Compared to the others, she was like milk chocolate. Yuno and Konami had not tanned much at all, and Tomoe had a persistent light tan because she spent so much time outside anyway.

Konata dropped them off at the ranch and drove away.

The ranch was surrounded by forests and hills, and there were several log buildings, paddocks, and pens. The style was Western; Tomoe explained that the ranch belonged to aunt Miyuki's relatives.

Konami drew a deep breath and exclaimed, "Ah! The fresh country air!"

Akane could also smell a lot of not-so-fresh things in the air. Such as manure. Plenty of it. But, she had been getting used to all sorts of smells and it didn't bother her much. "I can smell some horses over there," she muttered, and pointed at the one of the buildings. They couldn't see the animals, since they were behind a corner.

"Ah. The Icelandics are probably there," Tomoe noted.

Konami scratched her head. "From Iceland? Do they speak Japanese?"

Tomoe chuckled. "That won't be a problem. Follow me."

There were three horses in one of the paddocks, and a larger grey one in the pen next to them.

"The Arabian is for me. You guys will ride these!" Tomoe exclaimed, and pointed at the other three horses. They were much smaller than the majestic grey mare, but sturdy and muscular, and had bushy, full mares and tails. These horses seemed curious; they came to the fence to have a closer look at the girls.

"They are so friendly!" Yuno chirped, when one of the ponies nudged her hand with its muzzle.

"Yep, these are Icelandic horses, best for beginners like you. My sport is show jumping, so I need a different breed," Tomoe explained. "This is _Hayed_, an Arabic horse. Yours are named _Saga, Asa_, and _Inga_. But, you need some training before we can go. And let's take our luggage into our room."

After a brief basic course, and lunch, they were getting ready to take a ride in the woods.

Tomoe helped them to tack up their horses and to get started. After they had ridden a mile, she noticed something. "Konami, you don't need a riding crop."

"Oh? I just grabbed one at the stables. Thought it was kinky," Konami explained.

Akane glared at her but declined to comment.

Soon they were approaching the edge of the woods.

"Hey, Tomo-chan, what if one of these throws a fit?" Konami asked.

"You are riding Icelandics. They are docile and calm, not easily spooked. You can hardly make 'em throw a fit," Tomoe explained.

Yuno groaned in her mind. This was not good news for her secret plans.

"All right, we're on the path. Let's go!" Tomoe yelled, and spurred her horse.

Akane leaned forward and ushered her pony into a brisk gait. After a while she started to feel how the saddle was rubbing … the exactly right place. She began to understand why riding was so popular, especially with the girls.

Another disturbing thought came to her. The people who had manufactured her had connected her disembodied brain into her artificial flesh. She could feel touch, heat, cold, pressure, everything, exactly like she remembered it from her past life. And she could even feel good when she was rubbed … down there. "Perverts. They must be total perverts," she muttered. Or maybe perfectionists? They sure had added a lot of things that you wouldn't think of being necessary for a cyborg, but were normal for humans.

"Yee-haw!" Konami yelled, spinning her riding crop around. The crop accidentally struck her horse's hip. And at that moment the docile, calm Icelandic horse, named _Asa_, decided to throw a fit. It made a loud neigh and galloped onward at full speed.

Seeing this, Akane's horse, _Inga_, thought something was attacking them, and panicked as well. First, it went rampant and tried to shake this strange weight off of its back. The weight being … Akane. She was taken by the surprise and fell onto the ground, with her bum taking most of the blow.

Yuno's horse, _Saga_, on the other hand, stopped and froze, thinking that this terrible attacker would not see it if it stood completely still. Yuno kicked the sides of her horse, trying to make it panic as well, but it was completely frozen.

Tomoe had some trouble of controlling her horse as well. She had to dismount and start calming it down. "Damn. I hope Konami will be okay."

Akane stood up and dusted the seat of her blue jeans. "Konami!" she then gasped. Konami was in danger. She flicked the switch in her teeth and started running.

This was the first time she had actually tried it.

Her speed took even herself by surprise, and she stumbled upon a tree root, flipped, flew through the air, and collided with a tree trunk.

Akane came back to her senses in just a couple of seconds. Apparently her brain could still be knocked around in its container, but not seriously enough to get concussion. She moved her limbs and felt around her back, which had taken the most of the hit. Nothing seemed to be wrong. Neither her nor the tree trunk seemed to have suffered any damage.

She stood up, and, this time, started a bit slower. She soon got the hang of it, and reached a speed of that of a galloping horse – or more.

Ahead, she saw Konami's horse, and Konami still being tossed about on the saddle. Akane sped up a bit, passed the horse, and grabbed its reins. The horse yanked at the reins and shook its head, but slowly, Akane was able to force it to stop.

Along the way they had came to a clearing in the woods. The path ended in a beautiful meadow, with flowers blooming everywhere, birds singing, and a small stream coming down of a small waterfall and flowing at the other side of the meadow.

Konami slided off of the saddle and disappeared into the tall grass. Akane let go of the reins, flicked her teeth switch, and walked over to her.

"Are you okay?" Akane asked, and sat down beside Konami.

"My bum is bruised, but otherwise I think I am," Konami gasped. "Amazing how quickly you ran."

"It was scary …"

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Meanwhile, Tomoe's horse was panicking again for some reason.

"Whoa, whoa!" she yelled, but _Hayed_ yanked the reins from her hand and galloped off, towards the stables. Tomoe ran after her.

Since there was nobody in sight, Yuno decided to have a last try at making her horse to panic. She picked up the riding crop Konami had dropped, and slapped her horse's rear with it. She didn't think of mounting the horse first.

Nimbly, _Saga_ kicked backwards with both of her legs. One hoof hit Yuno in the groin and the other into solar plexus. Yuno fell down like a log. For a minute, all she could do was to writhe in pain, until she could finally take a painful, wheezing and gasping breath of air.

Five minutes later, Tomoe came back, leading her horse whom she had managed to catch and calm. _Saga_ had also calmed down and was grazing on the dandelions nearby.

"Yuno? Isn't it uncomfortable to lie down in a puddle of water?" she asked.

"… yeah … I mean no … it's perfect … karma …" Yuno gasped.

"Okay. I'm going to look for the others. Want to come with me?"

"… no … I'll just rest here … a bit more … go ahead …"

"Right-o! Have fun!" Tomoe chirped, mounted her horse, and rode away.

* * *

><p>From now on, Konami calls her mothers "Kaga-mom" (Kagami) and "Kona-mom" (Konata). It's easier to know which one she's talking about.<p>

That bit about riding rubbing a girl just into the right place … it's a fact. (#^_^#) That's why girls like horses and riding so much.


	9. More Fun

**Dare! the Next Generation: Chapter 9: More ****Fun**

This is the sequel of Lucky Star: Truth or Dare and Lucky Star: Dare! fics. So I'd better WARN YOU: there are lots of OCs around. All the main characters are OCs. That's because they are the descendants of (some) of the original Lucky Star characters. It's year 2024, and the main characters are high school freshmen, at Ryōō High where their parents used to go.

* * *

><p>They led their horses back to the ranch, because Konami said her butt was too sore for more riding today, and Yuno – she was obviously hurt and had to be supported by Tomoe.<p>

Yuno coughed, and croaked, "Yeah, that horse kicked me. Right in the nuts. Well, if I had nuts. It probably feels the same. And her other hoof hit me right here –" she pointed at below her sternum, and coughed again. "That was a really painful combo…"

Akane cringed, though she realized she might have not felt anything like that if a horse had decided to kick her. In fact, she'd be more worried about the horse than herself. "Our first riding trip was a failure," she sighed.

"But we had lots of fun! Though, my butt had a bit too much fun," Konami chirped, rubbing her bum. "Not sure if I can sit down tonight."

"A hot bath is great for aching muscles. After we've returned the horses and taken care of them, let's go to the bath," Tomoe suggested.

Tomoe showed them what had to be done; they unbridled the horses, took off the saddles, wiped the horses clean with damp sponge, checked the hooves, brushed the tails and so on. Yuno was too beaten up to take part in these duties and Tomoe had laid her down on a pile of saddle blankets.

Konami was whining and complaining about all the work, so finally Akane carried her to the same pile, threw her down beside Yuno, and told her to rest and shut up.

Of course, Tomoe didn't look tired at all, and Akane – she started to realize she does not get tired, at all. She wasn't sure whether she would run out of energy at some point, but so far she hadn't felt anything of sorts.

Finally, they led the horses back to the fencing.

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Surprisingly, the bath house – it was a literal house, a separate building – was rather large and luxurious, almost like a spa. The ranch was a popular tourist resort, although this Friday they were the only customers. Konami's mothers, as well as Tsukasa and Miyuki, her mother's old schoolmates, would be joining them tomorrow.

Tomoe still had to support Yuno, or perhaps Yuno deliberately exaggerated her injuries. "You sure we don't need to call an ambulance or something?" Tomoe asked.

"No, as long as you are helping me, I'm fine …" Yuno whispered. Finally Tomoe was touching her. Soon she would be touching her _naked_. Some drool drippled from the corner of Yuno's mouth and her eyes were glazed over. The others looked worriedly at her.

"You're acting weird, Yunocchi. Did you hit your head too?" Tomoe asked.

"Yu-Yunocchi?" She wasn't sure about this new nickname. But she didn't care as long as it was Tomoe. "No, I didn't. Just my chest, and, uh, you know … down there."

"I've been kicked and trampled on my foot by horses too, I know how it hurts. A vigorous massage, stretching, and exercise, those help you to recover quickly!" Tomoe exclaimed.

Yuno's cheeks turned red as she thought _where_ she would have to be massaged. "M-massage?" she gasped.

"Hm … I don't think their masseuse is here today," Tomoe muttered.

"She isn't? – that's okay! I don't want a massage!" Yuno said quickly. She didn't want any stranger to massage her anyway.

"Oh, that's too bad. I myself have been studying it a bit, and my teammates say I'm quite good. I've got scented oil and all in my bag. How about you two, do you need a massage?" Tomoe asked, turning to Konami and Akane. "The table is in that room over there."

Yuno felt like something had suddenly gotten stuck in her throat. _"No! Wrong! I didn't mean I don't want –"_ she screamed, but the only thing that came out was a weird gurgling sound.

Akane looked around, to make sure there was nobody listening. "I don't – since I don't think I would benefit from a massage in any way. My muscles are artificial, as you know."

"If it would help me to sit down, I'd love to have a massage!" Konami exclaimed, rubbing her bum.

"Right-o! Akane and Yunocchi, you can hit the bath while I do Konami," Tomoe suggested.

Yuno had gone limp due to the shock, and was unable to correct this terrible mistake. Tomoe lifted her helpless body onto Akane's arms and she started to carry her towards the changing rooms.

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Now, carrying Yuno wasn't at all unpleasant for Akane. She was still the most beautiful girl Akane had even seen, even when she was soaked with mud, dirty, and her pink hair a mess. "I hope you can undress yourself."

Yuno got her voice back. "Of course I can. I don't need your help! Put me down."

"Are you sure? You don't look so good –"

Yuno started kicking with her legs and struggling, so Akane placed her down. She stumbled to a nearby bench and sat down, whimpering in pain.

Akane sat down across from her and stared at her. She couldn't think of anything to say for the moment. She wasn't quite sure whether Yuno was still hostile to her or not, despite what she had said on that fateful day.

Yuno didn't hesitate in starting to undress herself. After she had taken her shirt and bra off, she noticed that Akane was staring.

"See anything you like?" she chirped, hoping to make Akane blush. But she didn't. "That's a nasty bruise," she commented. "It must hurt. Is there anything I can do?"

Akane had been staring at her bruise and not at her breasts. Yuno was a bit annoyed by this.

"Wait until you see the other bruise!"

"Oh, you don't need to show me …" Akane muttered, and now she had sense to begin blushing.

Yuno, completely unrestrained, threw the rest of her clothes off and spread her legs. "Look!"

Akane definitely wasn't looking. In fact, she was escaping. "I need to go to the bathroom!" she yelled and disappeared.

She really had to go. As she was crouching down, she realized another strange thing about herself. She had not thought of this before. "_Why do I have to go to toilet, anyway?"_

Soon she realized that it was necessary. She was supposed to be a human, and humans go to the toilet. "But why did they have to include the smells and sounds as well…?" she sighed.

She had "artificial digestion," but maybe it basically worked like human digestion. Strange that they went to such lengths, anyway.

As she came back, Yuno was gone. Akane took a shower, wrapped a towel around her and started looking for Yuno. It was easy: she simply closed her eyes and smelled.

She could smell that Yuno had taken a shower in the next booth, and she smelled her now-clean footprints going towards the door at the other end of the room. Behind the door, she could easily smell the bath.

Akane was surprised to find a great communal bath. A wall separated it from the men's side. There was a great fresco of Mount Fuji, which covered the entire back wall – very typical for Japanese baths.

And Yuno was already in. She was resting against the side of the bath and had a cold towel on her forehead. She didn't open her eyes when Akane entered.

"Tomo-chan is fondling Konami's butt right now …" Akane heard her mutter.

Akane descended into the bath. She thought of asking, _"You wanted her to fondle your butt instead?"_ but she couldn't. That was a joke only someone like Konami would crack. So, instead, she asked, "You like Tomoe, don't you?"

"You already know I do. I told you, you dummy."

"Sorry …" Akane whispered. An awkward silence followed.

A few minutes later, Yuno spoke. "If you don't like Tomoe, in that way I mean, why don't you help me getting her?"

"Uh, I'm not sure if I can be of any assistance –"

"_And aren't you far too young for things like that?" _she thought.

"In return, I'll help you get Konami."

"W-what?" Akane gasped.

Before Yuno could elaborate, the door opened, and Tomoe and Konami barged in, and interrupted their discussion.

"It hurt like hell!" Konami yelled. "But my bum is now fresh as a daisy!"

Akane thought her choice of words was weird, but she ignored her for now. She decided to actually start helping Yuno. "Hey, Tomoe, maybe Yuno still wants to try a massage? It might help her recover."

"O-oh!" Yuno gasped. "I mean, well … I wasn't really sure about it … but if you insist … m-maybe I could."

"Sure, why not. Come with me," Tomoe said. "We can come back to the bath later. We've got plenty of time before dinner!"

Yuno's entire face was beet red when Tomoe helped her out of the bath. Yuno quickly wrapped a towel around her, because it was different when it was Tomoe and not someone else watching her.

After they were gone, Akane closed her eyes. She wasn't in the mood of checking out Konami at the moment. She heard her descending into the bath, grunting and muttering about the scalding heat. Finally, she settled in.

As she was listening to this, Akane realized something once again. When she herself had entered hot water, she didn't need to stop and get accustomed to the heat. From what she remembered of her "user's manual", she could probably bathe in boiling water with no problem.

Still, at least they had managed to make a bath feel good for her. There was no difference of what she could remember from three years ago, when she had still been a human.

There was another awkward silence. Akane couldn't think of anything to say. Normally she didn't take baths with other people. Or never, actually.

"This would be quite a scene if you were a boy," Konami noted.

"If either of us were a boy, we wouldn't even be here together! And where this 'scene' idea came from? You sound like your mother. The short, blue-haired one."

Konami chuckled. "Yeah, I think some of it brushed off on me. I don't even play those kinds of games. Oh, about massage. Are you really sure you don't need any?"

"No, since I haven't –" Akane paused. She had never had any massage in her life. "I haven't had any in a few years."

"Well, why don't I try massaging your shoulders or something?"

"Uh, s-sure …" Akane muttered.

Konami floated closer. Akane moved off of the edge of the bath, closed her eyes and waited. She flinched a bit as she felt Konami's small fingers touching her shoulders. The fingers pressed down and started kneading her shoulder muscles.

So good. It felt so good … she couldn't stop a little whimper escaping from her lips.

Konami's fingers were surprisingly strong, considering her laziness. As she found a particularly sore muscle and pinched it strongly, it almost hurt. Now, Akane knew she could hurt, but after they had visited the laboratory, she had begun learning how to turn the hurt "off," so to speak.

Had she been a human, she would have moaned in pain by now. Or in pleasure, perhaps?

"How is it?" Konami asked.

"Weird. I can't explain it. But it does feel good …" she sighed.

"Your skin and flesh feel exactly like anyone else's," Konami whispered into her ear. It tickled.

"How many people you've been, uh, fondling like this?" Akane asked. For some reason she was now whispering as well. As if what they were doing was a secret.

Konami chuckled. "Fondling? I've massaged just my relatives. And Tomoe a few times, I think."

They both flinched when they heard a scream from the distance.

Konami chuckled again. "I guess I didn't really tell Yuno how much exactly Tomoe's massage hurts. I bit my lip and didn't make a sound … but it felt like she had peeled my butt muscles off and twisted and wrenched them into knots."

"You got strong fingers as well."

Her blush turned a degree deeper. Akane had not meant to sound suggestive.

"Oh, that's just from using a keyboard a lot. Kona-Mom still uses a keyboard and I fell into the habit."

Akane wasn't really listening to Konami any more. She felt probably more relaxed than for years. Or for the past two years, at least. She leaned back … and felt something against her back. Bare skin against bare skin. Instantly, she stiffened up and quickly leaned forward again.

"Just relax …" Konami whispered into her ear.

Slowly, she relaxed her muscles and leaned back again. After all, this was completely normal. They weren't doing anything out of the ordinary. Just two girls, relaxing in bath. That's all.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

"That wasn't funny!" Akane groaned.

In between bouts of laughter, Konami gasped, "But it was! Hilarious!"

"Come to think of it, I have never seen anyone fall asleep in bath. Isn't that dangerous?" Tomoe asked.

"Well, she floated –"

"It's not dangerous for me. But that's not what I'm upset about!" Akane interrupted. "How dare you play with my … uh, body like that!"

She had woken up and found herself floating in the bath, her body being used. With Konami just taking a bite off of her breast! The three other girls had acquired a platter of sashimi and sushi from somewhere and arranged it all on top of her naked body. There had been thin slices of white fish – blowfish, as she later learned – in a neat pattern around her breasts, and a pink slice of salmon on top of each nipple. Her tummy had been lined up with makizushi rolls and various pieces of nigiri. They had even placed some seaweed and salmon roe in between her legs. She shivered as she thought of it. At least she woke up before _that_.

And thankfully she had not panicked and dumped all that delicious sushi into the pool. She threatened to do that, however, and Konami was forced to bring back the tray and move the food off. And not with her mouth, but with chopsticks. They had then finished all the sushi. Akane was a bit disturbed by the fact that the others didn't hesitate the least bit to eat things that had been on her bare skin. She herself was the most hesitant one.

"Gee, Akane, that was just an old tradition called _nyotaimori_. People used to eat sushi off of girls' bodies all the time. They didn't have any plates back then, you know," Konami explained.

"Tomoe might believe that!" Akane commented.

"What, that wasn't true?" Tomoe gasped, her eyes widening. But then she burst into laughter, again. Obviously even Tomoe couldn't be that stupid.

"And you, underage girls, drinking sake! Wait until your mom…s hear about this," Akane threatened, aiming this mostly at Konami.

"It was worth it!" Konami announced, and hiccupped. "We didn't drink that much anyway, just one of these small bottles each. I saved one for you, Akane!" she continued, slurring drunkenly a bit.

"I'm not going to – oh!" Akane stopped suddenly. "I'm not sure what happens if I do drink alcohol. There wasn't anything about it in the manual."

Konami scratched her head, then said, "You've got a human brain, so it would affect your brain … thus, you'd get drunk just like anyone else, I suppose."

"Yeah, maybe. No, I'm not going to try!" Akane said. But she snatched the bottle Konami was handing to her off of her hand. "And I'll confiscate this, before any of you think of drinking it!"

"Aww. I guess the party is over," Konami sighed. Yuno and Tomoe didn't seem to mind, they each had an arm around the other and constantly burst into giggles over, well, anything or nothing at all. Yuno's face was still bright red and she had that creepy wide grin as in the day Tomoe "rescued" her.

"I hope you two didn't do anything indecent?" Akane asked, turning to them.

Tomoe didn't seem to understand this question at all. "What do you mean, indecent?"

Yuno only sighed deeply and shook her head a little. Akane and Konami looked at each other, and Konami winked her eye, as if they didn't understand what had been going on. Or more like, what had _not_ been going on.

"I don't think we should encourage them," Akane whispered to Konami when they were walking back to their quarters. "They are too young for this. And there's the school –"

"Aww, Akane, where's your sense of romance? Did you know Romeo and Juliet were just 13 years old?"

"I sure hope they don't have the same fate as Romeo and Juliet!" Akane muttered. "Besides, that was supposed to happen, like, five hundred years ago."

Konami hiccupped again, and then stated, "Two people making out for the first time … it's so beautiful!"

"Don't you mean, two people falling in love for the first time?"

"Same difference!"

Akane didn't bother to continue the discussion. There were more pressing matters at hand, such as the sleeping arrangements. Fortunately, for Akane's peace of mind, there were two two-story bunks in the log cabin where they would be sleeping.

* * *

><p>A light-hearted, silly chapter. Just writing for fun. I don't think this story will ever become <em>too <em>dark. I already know what's going to happen. I think the ultimate plot is … a stroke of genius, actually. But, it will take a _lot_ of chapters before we get there.

If I finish this story, I'll try to rewrite it, ditching all the Lucky Star references, and then I have a unique Japanese-anime-manga-style science fiction high school yuri romance story!


	10. Pillow Talk

**Dare! the Next Generation: Chapter 10: Pillow Talk**

This is the sequel of Lucky Star: Truth or Dare and Lucky Star: Dare! fics. So I'd better WARN YOU: there are lots of OCs around. All the main characters are OCs. That's because they are the descendants of (some) of the original Lucky Star characters. It's year 2024, and the main characters are high school freshmen, at Ryōō High where their parents used to go.

* * *

><p>Akane thought having two two-story bunk beds would have made the sleeping arrangements easy. But it turned out to be more complicated than that.<p>

"I don't want to be on the top bunk", Konami announced. "Because it's hard for me to climb up and down that high, 'cause I'm so short. And there even isn't a ladder or anything."

"I don't want the top bunk either –" Akane started, but she was interrupted by Yuno. "I want a bottom bunk! Sleeping up there, I would fear that I'd fall. I bet I couldn't sleep at all!"

That was in face the same reason why Akane didn't want a top bunk, but she was too embarrassed to say it aloud like Yuno. What made it even more embarrassing that Akane would definitely not be harmed by the fall the slightest bit. She'd be much more worried about the wooden floor of the cabin.

"Let's play rock-paper-scissors for the bottom bunks?" Konami suggested.

"No! I hate that game. I always lose in it, somehow," Akane protested.

"I know!" Tomoe shouted, and suddenly Akane got a pillow right in the kisser. Akane fell down backwards, and landed onto the floor with a loud thump, though her fall was somewhat cushioned by the rag rug.

Konami and Yuno gasped and stared at Akane with their jaws hanging in surprise.

"Let's have a pillow fight for the top bunks!" Tomoe yelled, and grabbed another pillow.

"Oh, no you don't!" Konami shouted, as she came to her senses. Swiftly, she dodged the other pillow thrown by Tomoe, and snatched a pillow from a bunk.

Yuno dashed towards the other side of the room, because she saw two more pillows in the armchair at the corner.

Meanwhile, Tomoe and Konami engaged in melee with their pillows. Tomoe was much stronger, of course, but Konami was much faster, dodging most of Tomoe's heavy but slow swings. She had forgotten about Yuno, who managed to sneak behind Tomoe without her noticing. As Yuno smacked Tomoe on the back of the head, and she stumbled forward, Konami swung at momentarily distracted larger girl and hit her square in the face.

A less athletic person would have been knocked out of the combat by this, but Tomoe recovered and swung her pillow in a large arch with her both hands, catching both Yuno's and Konami's heads with a glancing blow and sending them staggering.

At the same time, Akane had picked up the pillow that had put her down, and slung it at Tomoe with great force – though not with a cyborg-enhanced force, since she wasn't going to activate them for a pillow fight. The pillow struck Tomoe in the tummy and she doubled over.

Meanwhile, Konami had gotten entangled with her own legs and fell down backwards, fortunately landing on something soft. Namely, Akane. She found herself lying on the floor again, with something warm and soft sitting on her face. Konami's bottom, covered only by her pink g-string, which she wore under her miniskirt. Realizing this gave Akane a far bigger shock than any conceivable bash from a pillow would ever create.

It took Konami a few seconds to realize on what she was sitting. Even she was shocked and turned as red as a tomato, before rolling over and off of Akane. She giggled nervously and gasped, "Sorry, Akane! A-are you okay?"

Akane was staring at the ceiling with glazed eyes. Her cheeks were burning bright red as well and she was breathing unusually fast.

As Tomoe was getting up from the floor, Konami quickly made a "time out" sign with her hands. "We need to take a break with the pillow fight. Akane and Yuno-chan are both unconscious."

"I'm not unconscious," Akane whispered. No, she was very much awake, but nearly all she could think at the moment was Konami's crotch on her face.

Akane wasn't quite sure whether she should throw up or savor the taste. She got up and asked, "So, are we through with this fight? Who won, anyway?"

Konami looked around. "Well, me and Tomoe were the last ones left standing."

"Come to think of it, your argument was about the bottom bunks," Tomoe noted, scratching her head. "And I wanted the top bunk."

They heard sounds from under the table. Slowly, Yuno crawled into view. "I was already hurting all over. This made it worse. I don't want to climb up there."

It wasn't quite enough pain to make Yuno to show it, although her moving looked a bit stiff.

"Okay, fine. I'll take the other top bunk," Akane sighed. "Konami and Yuno, you can have the bottom bunks. Honestly, we didn't have to fight about it!"

"But it was fun!" Konami exclaimed.

Akane wasn't quite ready to call accidental facesitting fun. "I think my pillow fight quota for this year is full. So let's not do it again, okay?"

"Fine by me. Tomorrow is more riding! Up the hills!" Tomoe chirped.

"Oh good, more pain," Yuno sighed.

"Well, we can go paintballing instead. Or swimming –"

"Bah, why is all your entertainment so physical?" Yuno interrupted. She wanted to suggest another kind of physical entertainment, but not with Akane and Konami present.

"My sport is modern pentathlon, have you forgotten? It involves shooting, fencing, swimming, riding and running," Tomoe explained.

Yuno glared at her, and muttered, "Well, my favorite sports are eating, watching anime, reading manga, dressing up, and sleeping."

"Modern otaku-a-thlon?" Konami suggested.

Akane let out a weird and embarrassing snort, while Konami didn't hold back but guffawed without restraint.

The others rested, while Akane collected the pillows and returned them back to their place. She felt sort of a bit tired, but she had started to realize it was only simulated tiredness and that if needed, she could have continued any sort of physical activity for as long as she wanted. Until her energy would really run out, and she didn't want to experience that. It was unnerving, because if her body shuts down – what would happen to her brain if that happened?

She flinched when Tomoe suddenly sprung up and yelled, "Test of courage!"

"What!" all the other three gasped together.

Tomoe pointed at the window. "We must do a test of courage now. Look, it's almost dark outside."

"Now? I'm too tired!" Yuno moaned. "We are all too tired."

"Oh, Yuno, are you scaaaared? Are you going to scream? Or to burst into tears, like a little girl?" Konami cooed teasingly.

"Never!" Yuno exclaimed, and grabbed Tomoe's arm. "Me and Tomoe won't make a sound! We'll show you we are the bravest!"

"You and Tomoe?" Konami asked. "Well, fine! I bet me and Akane –" at this point, Konami hung onto Akane's arm – "are even more brave than you! We'll go all the way to the abandoned shrine! And – and – we'll bring a human bone back with us!"

"W-wait, what? I-is there an abandoned shrine nearby?" Akane gasped, and shivered a bit. "A human bone? We can't touch human bones! That's desecration!"

"Just kidding, Akane. The bones aren't buried there, anyway. We can bring back a piece of brick. Or a ghost? If we find one."

Akane shivered a bit. Yuno tried to look tough, while Tomoe seemed genuinely unaffected.

"Bring it on. Tomo-chan and I aren't scared of anything!" Yuno exclaimed, and grabbed Tomoe's hand.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

Soon enough, they were walking along a nearly overgrown forest path which supposedly would take them to the old shrine. Akane and Konami had gone ahead, and Yuno and Tomoe would follow five minutes after them.

At some point, dark clouds covered the moon and Konami stopped walking. Akane yanked her hand and whispered, "Hey, don't stop. I want to get done with this as soon as possible."

"B-but it's pitch black. I can't see anything," Konami whispered quietly, her voice shaking a bit.

"Nonsense. There's plenty of starlight –" Akane stopped in mid-sentence, because she realized there was something odd in this. It was late night, and the thick cloud cover blocked both the moon and the stars. So there was _not_ plenty of starlight in here. Yet, Akane could see almost as well as in daylight. Everything looked black and white, though, but she could still see.

Suddenly, Konami let go of her hand and stumbled a few steps backwards. She had turned completely white and her eyes were wide open. "A-A-Aka- Aka-!" she gasped.

Akane turned around and looked, but there wasn't any terrible ghosts or monsters behind her. What was Konami so scared about? "What? What's wrong?"

"Y-your eyes!"

For a moment, Akane tried to look at her own eyes, until she realized that it was impossible. "What's wrong with my eyes?"

"They glow! Deep red! It's terrifying! A-are you in fact a ghost? Where's my Akane!" Konami gasped, and looked around, trying to see where she could escape.

"I'm here! I'm the same Akane as always – I –"

Akane stopped talking and pulled out a small mirror from her pocket. She had always had a mirror and a comb with her, not that she herself knew why, because who would care about her looks … Akane gasped as she saw her reflection. Her eyes _were_ indeed glowing deep red.

"Hold on, Konami! I think I know what this is. I can see in the dark, and you can't. It must be yet another of my … features."

Konami drew a deep breath, and sighed out loud. "Whew. So that's what it was. For a moment, I was almost frightened!"

"You _were_ afraid," Akane noted. "Your eyes were as big as saucers. And you turned totally pale all of a sudden."

"No, I wasn't!" Konami insisted.

"You were!"

"No! You can't prove it!"

"Maybe I should ask Wakase-san to install a digicam into my head so I could record everything like you do."

"Bah …" Konami muttered. "And I forgot to bring my goggles. Though, it's too dark. The only thing that would have been caught in digital would have been your scary red eyes. Which reminds me – this is a test of courage! Let's hurry to the shrine and wait for Yuno-chan and Tomo-chan! When they see your eyes, they'll soil their panties."

"That … was so wrong," Akane sighed. "I mean the choice of words – ssh!" she ended her talk into a hiss, because she could smell Yuno and Tomoe nearby. "I smell that they are here soon. We'd better go on … we weren't supposed to meet them here."

"Yeah, let's go – wait, Akane, you need to hold my hand."

"Oh," Akane gasped, and took hold of Konami's hand. Holding her hand felt good. A bit too good, perhaps. Akane wasn't sure what that meant, but she wasn't going to think about it now.

She hurried forward, dragging Konami behind her, for she had already forgotten she couldn't see much of anything.

They got to the shrine, only that it was not only abandoned, it was in fact a ruin. Only a few moss-covered stones on a relatively flat clearing in the woods marked the spot.

Since Akane could see so well in the dark, the place wasn't that scary for her after all. The only unsettling thing was that the devil started whispering into Akane's ear. A short, lilac-haired devil, that is. "Akane…let's hide and scare them out of their minds. You only need to glare at them with those eyes of yours."

"Well … since this is supposed to be a test of courage … I'm a bit worried about them, though. Should anyone be scared with something this bad? Isn't that dangerous?"

"Nah, they are tough. You know Tomo-chan, she isn't scared of anything. And Yuno has an incredible pain resistance."

Konami went to hide behind one of the cornerstones, and, still a bit hesitant, Akane followed her. "So, what should we do? Jump out and scream 'boo' or something?" she whispered.

"No, that's not scary at all. You just raise your head and let them see your eyes. Don't make a sound," Konami whispered back.

They could already hear them. Tomoe was talking unusually lot, possibly as a way to encourage herself. She was explaining how to take care of horses. Yuno only muttered single words now and then to give the impression that she was listening.

Sighing deeply, Akane raised her head just above the top of the stone so that they could see her eyes.

Tomoe stopped talking and her eyes narrowed. She took a fighting stance, but had to catch Yuno, who went limp. Apparently she had fainted.

"Whoa, a beast! Come here, you monster, I'll kick your ass!" Tomoe yelled, as she laid Yuno down onto the ground.

"It's just me, Akane!" Akane quickly shouted, before Tomoe attacked her. "We just noticed that my eyes glow … and that I can see in the dark."

The moon was just coming back into view, giving the others some sight back.

"Well, you scared Yuno all right. I think she fainted," Tomoe noted, and knelt beside Yuno. "Yuno?" she said, and gently slapped Yuno's cheeck.

Yuno let out a low, agonized moan, and opened her eyes. "I'm dead and you are an angel?"

"No, you're lying on the ground and I'm Tomoe," Tomoe explained. "The scary thing with red eyes was just Akane."

"Oh," Yuno sighed, and closed her eyes again.

"Are you all right?" Konami asked.

"No. I need clean panties …" Yuno whispered.

"You did it, Akane!" Konami cheered.

"You asked me to do that!" Akane groaned. "I didn't want to scare them!"

"I was almost scared too," Tomoe noted. "And of course you had to do that, Akane. This was a test of courage."

Akane knelt beside Yuno and touched her hand. "Sorry, Yuno. I didn't mean to scare you that badly."

"Don't worry, Akane-chan …" Yuno whispered, and smiled weakly. Akane smiled back and petted Yuno's head.

"… my revenge will be much worse!"

Akane jumped away from Yuno, because now she looked scary.

デリミタ デリミタ デリミタ

They all had brushed their teeth, changed into pajamas – those who used pajamas, anyway – and settled down into their bunks.

"Well, one of Yuno's sports sounded fine for me," Tomoe exclaimed, gave a big yawn, yanked herself up into a top bunk with one strong move, and threw herself onto the bed. "Sleeping. Good night!"

"You still awake, Akane?" Konami whispered half an hour later.

"No," Akane promptly answered.

Ignoring her answer, Konami continued, "Earlier, that was strange," Konami whispered. "How come _you_ got knocked down by a pillow? When you are probably strong enough to stop a train or something."

"Yeah, well, I think it's just another … realism thing. I do slip, get knocked down, stub my toe, just like anyone else. The other day I hit my head on sink in the bathroom when I was picking up something and almost fainted. And …" Akane fell silent for a moment, in deep thought. "And I wouldn't like to fight anyone, not even with pillows, with my boost activated. Now I think it might have been a mistake to ask for these powers. I might hurt some of you some day, by accident."

They were both silent for a few minutes, until Konami whispered another question. "So … how did you like the little, umm, accident I had? On your face."

"Yuck!"

"Good thing that I wasn't having my period …"

"Ewwwww!"

"Anyway, Akane, I thought you'd have liked it!"

"Uh … why the heck are you wearing g-strings, anyway?"

"Oh, you noticed. I was thinking of you when I wore them. Like … as a fan service or something!"

"You have completely misunderstood the concept of fan service!" Akane groaned.

Though, come to think it within the tropes of anime, Akane remembered several scenes where a similar thing had happened. Was it called 'Suggestive Collision?' Initially, she resisted digging out her touchpad to check it out, but then she decided to give up. It wasn't like she could sleep anyway, because each time she closed her eyes she remembered…yeah, that.

So, that night, Akane couldn't sleep at all. She started to feel sleepy only when the first rays of the sunrise could be seen through the gap in the blue-white checkered curtains. She had been immersed in the anime tropes and websites all night.

Though, she had had company. Konami had worn her goggles and given her a hilarious running commentary on stuff she watched – Japanese TV, bad movies, sports channels. Yuno and Tomoe didn't seem to be disturbed, they both snored softly throughout the entire night.

By the small hours, Konami was apparently watching soft porn. Akane had to get up and borrow her goggles, despite blushing furiously, to take a peek.

"Think you could do _that_, Akane?"

"What, pretending to enjoy sterile, faked sex? I bet I could."

"Boo, how cynical."

Akane frowned. "Disgusting. Like, my parents, they started sleeping in the same room again and I had to listen to banging all night."

Konami laughed so hard that she fell off of the bunk. Thankfully, she was in the lower bunk they had fought so hard for.

"Banging of the bed! Against the wall!" Akane groaned. "That's what I meant. Uh, I feel sick. Thinking of your parents, doing – yech."

"Oh, I find the thought very exciting!" Konami chirped when she was able to speak again.

Akane remembered that Konami's parents were a pair of women. "Oh yeah, _your_ parents … that's …"

Konami got up from the floor and stared excitedly at Akane, her head tilted a bit, waiting for her to finish what she was saying.

"That's … uh …"

"Yes?"

"… weird. What are they doing, anyway? … No, wait!" Akane quickly continued as Konami was drawing breath, with the intention to say something. "I don't need to know!"

Akane wasn't sure whether the thought was icky or exciting. Then she blushed brightly when she remembered where her own face had been today. "Anyway! I think I try sleeping now!" she gasped, and climbed back up to her bunk.

Being aware of her artificial body, Akane was still not feeling physically tired, just mentally sleepy. It was really weird, since she could still remember how real physical tiredness felt, yet she couldn't feel it anymore. Somehow she felt as if she could sleep and yet do physical activity at the same time. "I hope I won't ever sleepwalk. That could be dangerous."

"Yeah, you could walk through that wall and not even notice."

Akane burst into hysterical giggles, as she thought of an Akane-shaped hole in the log wall. As if from Western cartoons. "I should _really_ try to sleep. Otherwise I'll be hysterical all day."

"Oh, but we can't sleep. Not for long, anyway. Mom and mom are coming here in a few hours. I just remembered they said they'd be coming."

Akane sighed deeply. Not that she disliked Konami's parents. On the contrary, she wished her parents were like that. Caring, loving, rich … well, money wasn't that important. Though it must be nice to come from a rich family.

But Akane was worried about the way Konami's mother Kagami used to look at her. It was, well, odd. It didn't look like she fancied her or anything. Just …

… just as if she knew about her.

"Crap."

"What?" Konami muttered sleepily.

"I think your mother knows about me. Kagami, I mean."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she did. She's pretty sharp."

Maybe she had heard their talking at the pool or on the way there. Now, the question remained, what should they do about it. "We must find out if she knows anything, and, if she does …"

"We must kill her?"

"Don't joke about such things. If she knows something, we must ask her to keep the secret."

"She's not just smart, she's wise. She'll understand."

"I hope so. Anyway … good night, Konami."

"Good night."

They were silent for a couple of minutes, until Akane smelled something. "Darn!"

"What?"

"I can smell your parents' car coming. They are here already."

"What, you can smell a car?"

"Yeah, easily. Though we are downwind from the road, which helps. Each car smells different, too."

"Amazing …"

* * *

><p>I was in a bit of a slump, writing-wise. Got to wait for inspiration for the next chapter.<p> 


	11. Horsing Around

**Dare! the Next Generation: Chapter 11: Horsing Around**

This is the sequel of Lucky Star: Truth or Dare and Lucky Star: Dare! fics. So I'd better WARN YOU: there are lots of OCs around. All the main characters are OCs. That's because they are the descendants of (some) of the original Lucky Star characters. It's year 2024, and the main characters are high school freshmen, at Ryōō High where their parents used to go.

Finally got this new chapter finished. I knew what was supposed to happen, but that was only a very small part of their day. I'm also forgetting what has happened, so I need to read the earlier chapters at some point …

* * *

><p>"Yuno?" Akane said quietly, and gently shook the pink-haired girl's shoulder. While asleep, Yuno looked perhaps more beautiful – and innocent – than ever. Also, she smelled good, and her fluffy anime character printed pajamas were sickeningly cute. But Akane knew better. "It's morning, and Konami's parents are here."<p>

"You..." Yuno growled, opened her left eye slightly, and frowned at Akane.

"Konami and Tomoe are in the bathroom and Konami asked me to wake you up … Listen, Yuno, I didn't really want to scare you yesterday. Konami asked me to do that," Akane whispered.

"That won't get you off the hook," Yuno said, gritting her teeth.

"I'm sorry! But what can I do?"

Yuno closed her eyes, yawned, stretched her arms, and sat up. She looked adorable, like a cute kitten waking up. "Well, there's something you could do. Help me to get Tomoe."

"G-get…?"

"I want her. If you promise to help me, I'll forgive you."

"_You're too young to think of such things! We are barely second-years at high school,"_ Akane thought. But she decided to be a bit more discrete. "Aren't you too young to think of such things?"

Yuno glared at her from under her brow. "It's never too early to love someone. I'd rather love and end up disappointed than to never love at all."

Akane sighed deeply. _"Will I ever love anyone at all…"_ she thought. So far, she had been lonely and sad all her life, and despite finally making some friends, she wasn't sure … Akane shook her head. No, this wasn't the time to think of herself. "Yeah … you got a point. If you forgive me, I will help you … get Tomoe. But mind you, I think she's only interested in sports. That's the most important thing for her for now. What if you distract her from her training?"

Yuno smiled, and her smile melted Akane's heart. Only if someone would smile for _her_ like that. "Don't worry. What_ever_ makes Tomoe happy, makes me happy. I will do my best to support her. I'll go down on her every day if that's what she needs to –"

"Stop! I Too much information!" Akane groaned.

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All the four girls were outside, more or less half-asleep due either to lack of sleep or due to waking up just a moment ago, helping Kagami and Konata unpack their luggage. Yuno, still in pajamas, excused herself from this duty saying that she was still too sore due to yesterday's accident.

Akane was feeling rather nervous. How to ask Kagami-san such a weird question? Besides, she would have to get Kagami-san alone, somehow. And Konata-san seemed to be clinging on her all the time.

"Isn't this nice, Kagamin? It's like the good old days at high school. When we went to the beach and ogled all those hot bikini chicks together," Konata cooed, hanging on Kagami's neck.

"They aren't wearing – and I didn't – I mean, we didn't do such things in high school! And this is not the beach! What's the schedule for today?" Kagami asked.

"Ahem," Tomoe started. "We're going to ride to a nearby lake and bathe the horses – and ourselves, if we wish. It's a picnic."

"Told you, Kagamin! Exactly like old times, hot biki – mmph!"

This time, Kagami used her palm to silence Konata. "You girls haven't had breakfast yet?" she quickly changed the subject. "We neither."

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After breakfast, they had dressed up for the picnic, and going to get the horses. Unwittingly, Kagami _was_ staring at some of the girls, with a slight blush on her cheeks.

Somehow Konata had smuggled in a complete riding apparel without Kagami noticing or even knowing she owned such an attire. She had black, shining hunt boots which almost reached her knees, a pair of tight, white jodhpurs, a dark blue dress coat, and a top hat, with her hair tied into a bun. Obviously all of this was just for show, since Konata was no rider.

"Konata …" Kagami sighed.

"What? What? Isn't this exactly what I should be wearing?" Konata exclaimed, and twirled around to give Kagami a better look. "Besides – " Konata pointed at Yuno.

Kagami turned to glare at Yuno. Yuno was wearing a frilled Sweet Lolita outfit. All pastel-colored, starting from her pink lipstick and down to her pink boots. Complete with a white, laced parasol. Konata, with her expert's eye, noticed that the skirt was a tad too short for a sweetloli, but she didn't comment on that.

"Are you going riding in that outfit!" Kagami groaned.

"Wasn't this a picnic? And I do have riding boots, see?" Yuno noted, and lifted her leg. "And 'My Little P*ny' panties!" she added, "accidentally" showing her skimpy character printed panties to anyone who wither cared to look or noticed – Tomoe didn't, she was too busy checking the tacks.

An awkward silence followed this statement.

"What do My Little P*ny panties have to do with – where did you even get such a thing! – bah, never mind …" Kagami sighed. "At least you didn't turn out like those two," she said to Konami, ruffling her hair. "Of course, you are weird, but not _that_ weird," she added.

"Thanks. I think," Konami commented. Konami was indeed dressed up relatively normally, in tight pants – behind of which Akane found herself staring at and thinking of how cute Konami's little butt really was – boots, and a sweater. Akane and Kagami, neither of them caring much about fashion, noticed that they had dressed identically: in jeans, checkered flannel shirts, and wide-brimmed felt hats.

"All right! The horses are ready," Tomoe announced. The others would again be riding the Icelandics and Tomoe her own horse, _Hayed_.

"You three better ride the same ones, since they know you already. _Saga_ for Yuno, _Asa_ for Konami, _Inga_ for Akane. Konata can take this small mare – she's called _Erla_, and the old _Hulda_ is for Kagami."

"Old?" Kagami muttered, staring suspiciously at Tomoe. _Hulda_ whinnied at her, as if she had gotten the joke. "I'm not that old!"

Konata giggled. "I'm sure she didn't imply that. Besides, I'm older than you."

Meanwhile, _Saga_ was staring suspiciously at Yuno.

"Come on, I won't try anything strange. Not in these clothes!" Yuno explained to the horse.

Tomoe eyed Yuno. "What strange things have you tried with _Saga_?"

"Uh, n-nothing," Yuno gasped. "Just, um, she kicked me yesterday … without reason! That's why. Just saying."

"Good. Treat the horses with respect," Tomoe lectured Yuno.

"Sure. Of course."

"And, while I know you wanted to look fashionable, you must wear helmets as long as we are riding," Tomoe added.

Konata and Yuno both tried to protest, but were quickly cowed into submission by Kagami and Tomoe.

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Today, their ride was much less eventful, so to speak, than yesterday's. They rode at a quiet pace, lead by Tomoe. Yuno would have liked to ride beside her but she wasn't quite sure how to force her horse out of the line. Kagami was fortunate – or unfortunate – enough to be riding behind Yuno and her miniskirt, and having a clear view of Yuno's panties each time she bounced. Of course, she tried not to look, Yuno being practically a relative of hers. But Konata, riding behind Kagami, got endless amusement when she realized what was making Kagami blush. And Konami behind them tried her best not to laugh aloud while she was recording the entire thing for later blackmail purposes.

Nobody's horse had a fit, now that Konami and Yuno had learned their lessons. The weather was cloudy, but just as they were reaching the lake, sun came out. Spring flowers were blooming in the meadow, birds were singing, the lake had a nice sandy beach, and there were nobody else around.

"Okay, I'll tack down the horses. Meanwhile, you'd better change into your swimsuits," Tomoe explained as she dismounted her horse. "We will have to get into the water to bathe them."

"Where are you going, Kagamin?" Konata asked, when Kagami started to head towards the nearby bushes. "You don't need to hide. We are all girls here. Even the horses!"

Kagami blushed, but said, "Okay, but Konami must put her goggles away first. Otherwise she'll record this."

Konami protested, "What, me? I wouldn't!"

"Oh yes you would," Akane muttered.

Muttering to herself, disappointed-looking Konami put her goggles into her bag.

Akane sort of wished Kagami had actually gone into the bushes, because she felt like being watched by Kagami as she was changing. As she looked back at Kagami, she knew she had just turned her face away. Of course, there was also the inevitable blush on her cheeks.

Akane herself tried to avoid looking at anyone. She already knew Yuno looked like a goddess, and she tried to resist the temptation to stare at the one she really wanted to stare at, which was Konami. She couldn't help taking a peek at both Konami and Konata at the end; she wanted to compare them. Konata still looked like a child, despite being double of their age. Her skin was white and smooth, and she was as flat as Konami. If anything, Konami's boobs were bigger than Konata's. Akane felt her cheeks burning and tried to look elsewhere. Yuno was practically drooling as she ogled Tomoe's athletic body shamelessly. Tomoe, being Tomoe, didn't seem to care, or, more probably, she didn't even notice.

After they all had changed into their swimsuits – or bikinis – Tomoe explained, "_Hayed_ and the others have already been here many times, so they are used to it. You can simply walk them in. Do it slowly and let them to get used to the temperature. The water isn't very warm at this time of the year. This is _Erla_'s first time swimming so I'd better handle her."

Tomoe then grabbed _Erla's_ reins, leading the horse slowly into the water until she was there up to her knees.

Tomoe began splashing water on _Erla's_ sides and used a sponge to wash her with the lake water, to get her used to it.

The other horses, lead by the girls, walked into the lake as if there was nothing to it. Not all of the animals wanted to actually swim; they were content by just being in the water up to their necks.

Kagami had taken _Hayed_ and given her docile, old Icelandic to Konata. It turned out that _Hulda_ liked swimming the best; she dashed into the water, dragging Konata behind her. Soon, however, Konata managed to climb onto the back of the swimming horse. "Wee-hee! This is like riding a dolphin or something!" Konata yelled to the others, who weren't getting as good a ride as her.

"Don't let her swim more than a few minutes! She'll get tired quickly. And watch out when you get back," Tomoe yelled. "When she touches the bottom again, she'll kick up really hard."

"Okay!" Konata yelled from the middle of the lake.

After the horses were washed, they dried them with towels and let them roam in the meadow. Some of them grazed lazily on grass, while others seemed to fall asleep.

Konata had brought food; it consisted of simple bento boxes with rice, fish and pickled vegetables, and a cooler filled with various nonalcoholic drinks.

Konami and Akane were both sleepy due to their sleepless night, and fell asleep side to side on the blanket while the others went to pick flowers.

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Slowly, Akane started waking up. Her cheeks turned bright red immediately when she realized Konami was now resting sideways on her chest, and her arms around her. Konami's innocent sleeping face was right in front of hers, and her cute, yielding, bud-like mouth, with lips slightly parted, right in front of her own lips, as if inviting her to kiss them.

But before Akane had time to even think of stealing a kiss, Kagami, who had just came back, yelled, "What are you doing!"

"N-nothing! We just fell asleep and she probably trashed around in her sleep!" Akane explained, trying to push still half-asleep Konami away.

The others, following Kagami with bunches of flowers in their hands, stared at them.

"I am worried about your relationship with our daughter," Kagami growled.

All the other girls – who shared the secret – fell silent and looked guilty, which didn't exactly help Akane.

"Wh-what? We are friends … and classmates. I would never harm your daughter," Akane gasped.

Konami, now fully awake, stared at Akane, and then at Kagami, but she couldn't think of anything to say at the moment.

"But what _are_ you, exactly?" Kagami asked.

Akane didn't answer, at first. She looked at Konami, Yuno, and Tomoe, and then back at Konami.

Konami looked puzzled. It was obvious she didn't know what was going on. "Don't look at me," she said. "I haven't told Kaga-mom anything. But, as we thought … she's smart. And nosy."

"Hey!" Kagami groaned.

Akane sighed. "I guessed you had noticed something. Yes, I'm … special. But I assure you that I'm not dangerous. I would never hurt anyone."

"What is this? What do you mean by 'special'?" Konata asked.

Akane took a deep breath. "You'd better sit down. This takes a while to explain."

They walked back to the blanket and sat down in the shade below the parasol. Konami sat down beside Akane.

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"I would have never believed this. But having seen those sockets in the back of your neck … I guess I have to believe," Kagami sighed. Akane and Konami had told them the entire story, and, reluctantly, Akane had proven it by showing them.

"Cooool!" was Konata's reaction. "This is totally amazing! You look exactly like a – hey, can I cop a feel?"

"W-what?" Akane gasped, but since she didn't say "no," Konata decided that she was entitled to do it. So she crawled almost onto Akane's lap and placed her hands on her shoulders. "Feels just like human flesh!"

Akane was too shocked to stop Konata as she slid her hands behind her swimsuit and squeezed her breasts. "Nice. Smooth and squishy. Not at all like implants! Like that supermodel we know, Kagami. Wanna try these too?"

Akane finally came into her senses, and pushed Konata away. "Stop fondling my boobs!"

Konami glared at Konata, looking annoyed. "Hey mom, those boobs are mine!"

"They are my boobs! Not either of yours!" Akane groaned.

"Stop teasing her, both of you," Kagami groaned. "I'm still worried. A lot. Someone who is worth billions of yen …"

"I don't like it any better than you," Akane said. "But, considering the alternative … there isn't any. I would simply be dead."

"I hope you are not going to use those super-powers of yours at school. Or anywhere."

"Be a caped crusader!" Konata exclaimed. "A superheroine that fights evil in a mask!"

"No, please, don't," Kagami groaned.

"That might happen …" Akane said quietly after they had sat in a silence for a long while. "I mean, they wouldn't have given me these super-powers without reason. I don't believe it was just for research purposes."

Kagami nodded. "I think so too. I doubt they would take you off high school, though. So, for now …"

"For now both me and your daughter are safe …"

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They were quietly enjoying their dinner, when Konata turned to Kagami, and asked, "Kagamin, how about doing the cyborg-girl together? Wouldn't that be exotic? She was built for sex, you know. Sex doll."

"Konata!" Kagami groaned. "She's not a doll, but a living person! And she's underage, and our daughter's classmate! …a-and Sebastian's daughter … that's just sick!"

"Who's Sebastian?" Akane asked, but the older women ignored her.

"Oh, but I've noticed how you look at her. Since that time you got to fondle her bum –" Konata chirped, and nudged Kagami's side teasingly. "And you looked jealous when I grabbed her boobs."

Suddenly Kagami remembered where she was. It was evening, they were back at the ranch, and having dinner. And all the four high school girls were here and listening to them. All flustered, she turned to them and explained, "I don't look at – she is just joking! We don't do … uh, well, normally we don't! … I mean … it's just … I don't look at you because – and I didn't fondle Akane's butt!"

"What Kagami is trying to explain that we do enjoy an occasional threesome."

"Konata!"

"Come on, Konami knows all about it already. And isn't it time for these girls to learn some facts of life?"

"No! … Wait, why does our daughter know 'all about it'?" Kagami groaned.

"Whoops! I mean … she must have guessed … that we, uh …"

"Konata …" Kagami hissed menacingly and raised a fist.

"Sorry! I, I had a chat with her! After you had had y-yours –"

Konata made a funny snort, as she was desperately trying to hold her laughter. "Since you already told her about the bees and the flowers. I – oww!"

Kagami smacked Konata on the top of the head with her knuckles, and glared at Konami. "You little devil, did you tell her about that?"

"Uguu…" Konami whimpered, and tried to hide behind Akane.

While the others argued, Yuno whispered to Tomoe, "All this sex talk is making me horny. What about you?"

"Mm … dunno … but they do say that having sex the night before a big competition improves your performance," Tomoe answered nonchalantly.

Yuno was about to faint or at least get an explosive nosebleed. "W-when is the next big competition?" she gasped.

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After they had finished dinner, Kagami stood up and turned to the girls. "Ahem. There's something we need to talk about. We are having a class reunion two weeks from now, at our house."

"We know!" Tomoe exclaimed. "Mom and mom are going."

"My dad hasn't said anything," Akane noted. "He was in … Konata-san's class? Was he invited?"

"Yes, he was," Kagami said. "Though it's more a high school friends' reunion. We did invite everyone in both of our classes, but also the group who did – I mean, the group of friends we had –"

"You mean the cheerleader group! We did that opening number at Cultural Festival!" Konata corrected.

"Uh, yeah. That group," Kagami muttered, obviously embarrassed.

"I've got a video of that!" Konami exclaimed.

"What! How?" Kagami groaned. "Delete it! Delete all of the copies!"

"Why, it's very cute. Too cosplay'ish for my tastes, maybe. You can see their panties –"

"Konami…" Kagami sighed. "Anyway, this was not what I wanted to talk about! Tsukasa's insisted on doing all the cooking, with Ayano helping her. But we need waitresses –"

Konata and Yuno interrupted, in unison, yelling, "Maids!"

Kagami slapped Konata on the top of her head and corrected, "Waitresses! And I thought I'd ask you girls to come and help us. Since you are relatives, family –"

"I've got plenty of cosplay outfits! I'm sure I've got something which fits Konami, maybe Yuno. What comes to Tomo-chan …" Konata tilted her head and stared at the big girl. "Well, I'll arrange something. Male waiter attire, perhaps?"

Immediately, Yuno pinched her nose close, blocking the imminent explosive nosebleed she thought she would have when hearing this.

"It's not a cosplay party!" Kagami groaned. But she was blushing as well.

Konata nudged her wife's side with her elbow. "He he, you're already enjoying it."

"Am not!" Kagami claimed.

"Of course we will help!" Konami exclaimed.

"I'd _love_ to dress up," Yuno sighed, staring dreamily at Tomoe.

"Sure, why not. Sounds fun," Tomoe said.

Akane sighed deeply. She felt was getting dragged further into the madness. Or whatever all this should be called. Yet … again it was something she had never even dreamed of before. A big party. She had never been at a big party. Whether as a waitress or a guest.

"Sure, I'll do it," Akane sighed, when she noticed that everyone was waiting for her answer. "But there's one thing … who the heck is Sebastian? Earlier, you said I'm his daughter!"

Konata and Kagami chuckled.

* * *

><p>Next Chapter: the Class Reunion!<p> 


	12. Class Reunion

**Dare! the Next Generation: Chapter 12: Class Reunion**

_Aete!_ _Jisedai _(あえて 次世代) is the sequel of Lucky Star: Truth or Dare and Lucky Star: Dare! fics. So I'd better WARN YOU: there are lots of OCs around. All the main characters: Konami, Akane, Yuno, and Tomoe, are OCs. That's because they are the descendants of (some) of the original Lucky Star characters. It's year 2024, and the main characters are second-years at Ryōō High where their parents used to go.

Oh, in last chapter, Konata and Kagami said Akane is "Sebastian's daughter". Actually she isn't. They just didn't know that. Akane doesn't tell them either, mostly because she just doesn't give a damn.

**Mio** and **Ritsu** will make their first appearance. Don't remember them? They were described at the end of the first chapter. They are Tomoe's little twin sisters. Also, nearly everyone from the original series will make an appearance. And maybe we'll finally hear about Yutaka and Minami…

* * *

><p>"You can't dress like that!" Akane groaned.<p>

It was afternoon, on the day of the great class reunion party, and they were at Kagami's and Konata's mansion. And Yuno had already dressed up. Akane guessed it was probably a maid outfit. Unlike most maid outfits, it had a miniskirt, an exposed midriff, an exposed cleavage – in short, it exposed as much as one could possibly expose without being explicit.

"But this is a special outfit! Personally chosen by my brother. Besides, it's a party, and every party needs maids –" Yuno protested.

"Come on, Akane, it's not so bad. I just hope _mom_ doesn't dress up like that. It would be a disgrace, to have such an old woman to –"

Konami was interrupted by a severe pain in her head. More precisely, on the top of the head, where the "old woman" had just struck her with her knuckles. Konata, that is, who had sneaked into the girls' dressing room with a camera in hand.

"Oww!" Konami yelped.

"How dare you to call your mother an old woman!" Konata growled. "I'm not old! Besides, I still look like a loli. Kagamin always says so. Especially when we're bathing toget – oww!"

This time it was Konata's time to yelp, because Kagami stood behind her and used her knuckles on the bluenette's head. Kagami had noticed Konata taking the camera and had silently followed her.

"Don't talk to them about such things! They are still underage!" Kagami yelled. "Besides, what are you going to do with that camera? You can't take pictures of underage girls!"

"Oww, oww. Who are you to talk? You, who fondled Akane-chan's bum, lectured Konami about sex and –"

"Ahem," two voices interrupted their bickering. The four girls and the two women turned around and flinched, because two pale, expressionless, identical twins had made a silent appearance without anyone noticing. They were also wearing maid outfits, though these were normal. Black dresses, which covered everything decently, and white aprons.

Yuno reacted stronger than the others, possibly intentionally, and jumped onto Tomoe's neck. "Eek! Save me, Tomo-chan!"

"How do they always manage to appear from downwind …" Akane whispered to Konami. She had not smelled them coming, while she normally could smell where everyone exactly was in the entire house.

"Mio and Ritsu …" Kagami sighed. "Would you two please stop doing that?"

"What, auntie Hiiragi?" they asked in unison.

"Appearing suddenly like that! And talking together … how can you even do that? Do you read each other's thoughts?" Kagami groaned.

"Of course not, auntie Hiiragi. We are both individuals!" Mio and Ritsu replied, in perfect unison.

To show that they were individuals, they started talking separately. Though, it sounded not much less creepy."We just wanted to say," Mio started, followed up by Ritsu, "that Yuno-chan doesn't have to be a maid, because" and Mio then finished, "she's a guest and we shall work as your maids tonight."

Mio and Ritsu were Tomoe's little twin sisters, and Hiyori Tamura was their mother. They were eleven years old now, precocious to the extreme, to the extent of being moved directly from the elementary school to the first class of high school, talked like adults, and were almost always together. They were also exceedingly polite and well-behaved.

"Well, I just cosplay a maid, then," Yuno explained. "It's not like I really wanted to carry trays and stuff anyway –"

"Why didn't we hire waitresses and chefs?" Kagami asked. "It's not like we couldn't afford that…"

"Aww, Kagamin, don't you like mine and Aya-chan's cooking?" Konata whined.

By Aya-chan, she meant Ayano Minegishi, who would also be cooking for the party, along with Konata.

"Of course I do, but the kids were supposed to handle all the work, and this was supposed to be a class reunion," Kagami muttered.

"You can all come to the kitchen and watch us cooking."

The doorbell rang. "Oh, more guests –"

They heard the main door opening, and then someone screaming, and noticed that Mio and Ritsu were gone. "That sounded like Tsukasa," Konata noted. "The twins probably opened the door and scared her…"

Akane shivered, and whispered to Konami. "Are those twins _normal _at all? They are already at high school…"

Konami chuckled. "I wouldn't talk about _normal_ if I were you."

"Uh, yeah … I suppose you're right …" Akane sighed. After all, she was not exactly "normal" herself. In fact, nobody in this party would be really normal, except perhaps for Kagami Hiiragi.

"Hiiragi!" someone shouted, dashed in, and jumped onto Kagami's neck. "I haven't seen you in ages!" Misao Kusakabe yelled.

"Yeah … I-I'm happy to see you too, Misao," Kagami muttered. "Why are you clinging onto me?"

"Mm! Me like! You smell and feel quite like your sister. A bit more chubby, perhaps?" Misao commented, feeling Kagami up dangerously close to the penalty zones.

"Get off!" Kagami groaned, and pried Misao off of her.

"Hello, everyone," Ayano Minegishi said. Tsukasa looked a bit pale and was leaning onto Ayano's arm. "Those Tamura twins gave Tsukasa quite a scare."

"I thought they were ghosts or something!" Tsukasa moaned. "Just like in that scary movie Misa-chan forced me to watch last week …"

Ayano, Tsukasa, and Misao looked a lot like they had been at high school, Kagami realized. Just a little taller, slightly more mature, and Ayano had gotten some gray hairs. Possibly because she had lived with Tsukasa and Misao, both of them troublesome in their own way, for so many years.

Kagami sighed. She hoped she herself didn't have gray hairs. She hadn't checked lately.

"Sooo, how's everyone doing? Lookin' forward to seeing all you guys naked again! Ha ha! Just kidding!" Misao yelled, and slapped Kagami's back.

"Naked? How come?" Akane asked, glaring at Misao.

"Aren't we going to bath together? Hiiragi's bath is amazing. It's like, a spa! They've got everything! Sauna, Jacuzzi, you name it! It's even better than in old Takara's house," Misao explained. "Where's big-boobs, anyway?"

All of them knew whom Misao meant.

"Miyuki will be here later. And I understood Kuroi-sensei will be coming as well," Kagami said, looking at Konata.

Konata nodded. "Yep. And Yu-chan is coming too. Not sure about –" Konata suddenly ended that sentence and continued. "You guys staying the night? I guess it's perfectly fine if we want to use the onsen."

"Onsen?" Akane gasped.

"Yeah, didn't you know?" Konami asked. "We've got our own hot spring in the back yard."

Akane stared at her. "That's just … too incredible. Next you tell me you own one of the _Ryūkyū _islands for your summer house."

"Ahem," Konata coughed. "We do."

"What!" Misao yelled. "Why didn't you tell me! Why didn't you ever invite me?"

"We just bought it last year! We have barely been there ourselves. Personally, I thought it was totally unnecessary," Kagami sighed.

"But, Kagamin, I had to find some use for all my money. The bank told me they were full and couldn't store any more of it," Konata explained.

All the others stared at them wide-eyed, until Ayano started laughing. "You're kidding, guys?"

Kagami grinned. "Of course. We did buy a summer house last year. It's not like a palace, it's not on an island, but the ocean and a beach are nearby. And we do plan to invite everyone."

"Kagami has learned to joke!" Misao gasped.

They heard the doorbell ring again, and then they heard another scream.

"That was Miyuki …" Kagami sighed. Of course, she would be scared by the creepy twins.

"Big-boobs!" Misao yelled, as Miyuki came in a few moments later.

Before Miyuki had a chance to say anything – such as a formal greeting with the obligatory bow – Misao jumped at her, and buried her face into Miyuki's cleavage. Miyuki yelped, turned as red as a tomato, and was too flustered to even push her away.

"Misao!" both Ayano and Tsukasa groaned, grabbed her, and pulled her away from the blushing pink-haired woman. "Come on, guys!" Misao protested, clinging into Miyuki's shirt so that she was in danger of having a sudden wardrobe malfunction. "She's a doctor!"

"That's completely irrelevant!" Ayano groaned.

"Didn't you bring the kids?" Kagami asked, ignoring the ruckus. At least Miyuki's children were _normal_, unlike Mio and Ritsu.

"Oh, no, not this time. Since this is a class reunion…" Miyuki explained, trying to straighten her clothing.

"We wouldn't have minded. I bet we have a children's play room somewhere in this house … or a full-blown amusement park. Wouldn't be surprised. Anyway, are we all here now?"

"Yeah, Patty-chan and Hiyorin are in the living room already. Let's all go there?" Konata suggested.

"Which one?" Kagami asked. In this house, that was a necessary question.

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It took them a while, but they finally found the correct living room – it was the largest one on the first floor – and found Patricia and Hiyori talking with a surprise guest. It was a middle-aged woman, not that she looked at all bad for her age, with long blond hair, wearing a white shirt and jeans.

"Yo, sensei!" Konata yelled from the door.

"Izumi! You haven't grown at all!" Kuroi-sensei greeted her.

"Sheesh, that's a really _old_ joke," Konata replied. "Besides, we met last week …"

Since the other girls looked worried, Kagami explained, "Don't mind. They're always like this. You should see them in the online games, there it's ten times worse…"

"I heard about the party and –" Kuroi-sensei stopped talking, jumped up and rushed at Misao. She grabbed the fanged woman in a head-lock and yelled, "How DARE you not to invite me? Your favorite teacher! This is your fault, Kusakabe! You of all people should have remembered me! To think that I kissed you under the mistletoe back then … and once I asked you to marry me –"

The youngster's jaws fell open. "Kuroi-sensei proposed to YOU!?" Konami gasped. "I can't even imagine that."

Misao groaned, "Hey, I was pretty cute in high school. I mean, I'm still cute! I –"

Kuroi-sensei tightened her grasp around Misao's neck and she had to stop talking.

"Yeah, she did. She was desperate," Konata explained. "Or drunk, more likely."

"Wait until I finish off Kusakabe, then I'll get to you, Izumi!" Kuroi-sensei hissed.

"But you got someone eventually, didn't you?" Konata quickly said. "So it's all fine now."

Of course, everyone knew Kuroi-sensei's wife, Matsuri Hiiragi, who was a TV celebrity.

"Yeah, okay, maybe," Kuroi-sensei muttered and let go of Misao, who collapsed onto the carpet.

"Hiiragi-san, Minegishi-san," they heard two voices saying, in unison – those were, of course, Mio and Ritsu at the other end of the living room. Behind the pair of creepy little maids, they saw a doorway leading into a very large dining hall, with lit candles on a long dinner table covered with a shining white tablecloth and lots of silverware and crystal. "It is time to start cooking. Everything is ready in the kitchen."

"So, what's for dinner?" Konami asked.

Akane sniffed the air, and answered aloud, without missing a beat. "Miso soup, rice, of course, then mini-hamburgers … and ketchup – isn't that a bit childish? – eel … are you going to broil it and put it over rice? … omelet, asparagus, carrots, baked salmon, okra, pickled vegetables, naturally. Ah, now I know – school bento theme? But … choko-koronets and milk for dessert? That, I don't understand."

Slowly, Akane realized that everyone was looking at her.

"How do you know all that?" Kagami asked, eyeing her with suspicion. "Tsukasa and Ayano didn't tell anyone about the menu. Not even me. They said it will be a surprise."

While she already knew Akane, this was something Kagami had not been told about. Somehow, Akane felt this ability was embarrassing and thus she hadn't mentioned it. "Uh, can I tell you later?" Akane quickly replied.

The others, especially those who weren't aware of Akane, looked puzzled.

There was an awkward silence, until Kagami finally said, "Maybe … maybe you should tell everyone. These are all good people."

"Even Misao," Kagami added, before Akane answered.

"Hey!" Misao groaned.

"Tsukasa, Ayano, you'd better sit down as well. The dinner can wait a bit. This will be hard to believe. But it is all true …" Kagami started.

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With the possible exception of Mio and Ritsu, they were all flabbergasted. What they had just learned sounded impossible, but after Akane demonstrated a few things and Konami showed them some videos, they just had to believe it. Also, now they all had learned about Akane's superior sense of smell as well. That made some of the girls blush quite a bit, for obvious reasons.

"Incredible!" Misao gasped, breaking the stupefied silence. "Just incredible. You could win all the national track and field competitions! You'd be filthy rich!"

Kagami glared at Misao. "That's the first thing that comes into your mind? Now, that wouldn't be fair, would it? Besides, money isn't everything."

"Easy for you to say!" Misao exclaimed.

"Most of the money is Konata's!" Kagami claimed. "Besides … Akane here cost a thousand times more than we own together."

"Kagami-san …" Akane muttered. "Please, don't talk about it. I don't like it either."

"Uh, I'm … just happy they used tax money for you," Kagami explained.

"D-do you eat … food?" Tsukasa asked, staring at Akane wide-eyed, as if she was expecting her to sprout wings or tentacles or something at any minute.

"She already told us," Kagami sighed.

"Of course I do. I get energy from food and drink, just like anyone else. They did a pretty good job … I _myself_ thought I was just another school girl!" Akane explained.

"Anyway, this is a class reunion. I know Akane is amazing, but let's just treat her like another school girl today, and have a party," Kagami declared.

"Oh yeah! Maybe we could do a little 'spin the bottle' after dinner –" Konata was swiftly interrupted by Kagami's knuckles on the top of her head.

"Absolutely not!" Kagami groaned.

The doorbell rang again. "More guests?" someone asked.

They heard a little scream. "Oh, that must be Yu-chan," Konata noted.

Soon enough, Yutaka Kobayakawa came in, looking a bit shocked. She was wearing a purple dress and had two ribbons in her hair – something she rarely did anymore. Konata sighed, because, while older, Yutaka was still the embodiment of cute. And, while she was still short, she had grown notably taller than Konata.

Yutaka was followed by a tall, elegant lady with long, brown hair and piercing purple eyes.

"You!" Akane growled. "What are you doing here?"

"Why, I was their classmate, of course. Hello, Patty, Hiyori!" Izumi Wakase greeted them.

"What's so bad about Izumi?" Patricia asked Akane.

"She's responsible for me – oh, Kobayakawa-san doesn't know yet? Should we explain her?" Akane answered.

Yutaka blushed a bit. "Uh, I know about you, Kogami-san …"

That was a choice Akane didn't like in particular. "Just call me Akane. You … know?"

"Yu-chan works in my team," Izumi Wakase explained. "She knows pretty much everything."

Akane glared at Yutaka, who looked a bit flustered. "I just edit documentation … and do a little programming!" she explained quickly.

"Sorry," Akane sighed, forcing a smile on her artificial – but luscious – lips. "I don't blame you for anything. I really should thank you … both of you. I wouldn't even exist without, well … that."

"That's your work?" Patricia gasped. "Amazing. We want to hear all about it!"

"Just don't tell them _everything_," Izumi said, and ruffled Yutaka's hair.

"Geez, don't do that …" Yutaka muttered. "I'm not a child."

"But you are still sooo cute!" Hiyori gasped.

"Guys…" Yutaka sighed.

Kagami sighed deeply and, always the practical one, said, "So, is everyone here? Tsukasa, Ayano, maybe you should start the cooking. The kids will help you and Mio and Ritsu with things."

"Oh, by the way," Konata asked Akane before she went, "is Sebastian coming?"

That was something Akane had forgotten to ask about. So she asked now. "Who the heck is Sebastian? You even said I'm Sebastian's daughter!"

"Of course. That's the nickname we used for Shiraishi in high school," Konata explained. "Because of Mar*m*te!"

"Oh, I see," Akane said. Not that she really understood, even knowing the anime Konata had mentioned. "Mom and dad aren't coming. They are currently on vacation in Hawaii. '_Lovey-dovey vacation_,' as mom said."

Akane shivered a bit in disgust as she told them.

"Aww, would you like to go on a lovey-dovey vacation, Tomo-chan?" Yuno cooed, rubbing herself against Tomoe, on whom she had cling on to the entire time.

"Dunno about that," Tomoe replied, "but there's a training camp coming up soon. Would you like to come with me?"

Yuno blushed, giggled nervously, and gasped, "With you I would come in an instant!"

Kagami groaned and palmed her face, while Konata and Konami laughed aloud shamelessly. Some of the others didn't seem to get it, but some of them giggled as well.

Tomoe looked unfazed, and simply said, "It's settled, then. It's nice to have company!"

Yuno began fishing out her cell phone from somewhere – there weren't too many places to store it in – muttering, "Though, I have call my brother and ask if it is okay…"

"Now, would you go to prepare the dinner, please," Kagami sighed. This lead to an inevitable 'hungry Kagamin' remark from Konata.

The 'kids,' lead by Tsukasa and Ayano, headed for the kitchen.

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Tsukasa and Ayano were handing out jobs in the kitchen.

"So, what will I cook?" Konami asked, when it started to look that she wasn't going to be given anything to do.

Akane replied quickly. "Nothing! We don't want to see thick, black smoke filling the kitchen, or pots exploding."

"Aww, Akane, but I have learned to cook! Yuno taught me!" Konami protested.

Akane turned to Yuno. "Did she learn anything?"

"She can make coffee … with a machine," Yuno explained.

"Maybe Konami-chan could wash the rice?" Tsukasa asked her.

"No. Last time she washed it all right – down the drain, that is," Yuno sighed.

In the end, Konami helped Mio and Ritsu set the table. Breaking a few plates and one expensive crystal glass would at least not ruin the entire dinner.

"They sure are noisy," Konami noted, when she came back to the kitchen with the dustpan full of shards. She was referring to the classmates in the living room. They were indeed speaking and laughing a lot. Especially Misao and Kuroi-sensei by the sound of it.

Akane finished rolling the omelet, and poured another dash of egg mixture onto the pan. "Well, we too go to the same school, and you know how crazy it is. They have lots of stories, lots of memories to talk about …"

Stories which Akane now finally had as well. For a long time, school had been very boring and lonely for her. Until she had befriended Konami and the others.

"Absolutely not! We won't wear those!" they heard Kagami shouting.

Tsukasa and Ayano looked at each other. "Oh, Kona-chan must have brought out the costumes," Tsukasa noted.

This made Konami – and even more so, Yuno – interested right away. "What costumes?"

"The ones we wore at the last school festival, when we were doing the cheerleader routine," Tsukasa explained. "Kona-chan somehow saved the costumes and has kept them all these years."

Then, Tsukasa giggled. "I bet sis can't fit into hers."

"Oh, those costumes! They are quite hot indeed. Don't worry, Akane, I have the recording of that dance," Konami said comfortingly and patted Akane's back.

"I don't worry!" Akane groaned.

"You can even see their panties!" Konami declared.

"Go away!" Akane yelled. "Go and record their stories or something. Let us cook in peace! Look, you made Yuno drop one of the burgers."

"Aww, okay …" Konami sighed, and finally left them alone.

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"Incredibly delicious!" Misao shouted. "Now the only thing I miss – not very much, though – is Kagami's leek ice cream."

The others shuddered when they remembered the legendary dish. For some reason, Misao –and only her – loved it, while every normal person thought it was terrible.

"I made it for you once, when you turned 30," Kagami noted.

They had all but finished the dinner. Tsukasa still couldn't decide on which end to start with her choko-koronet, and had not even begun, while some others didn't have room for it. But all agreed that the dinner had been excellent.

"Toast to … Kuroi-sensei!" Konata yelled. "She made us the people we are now. Or, at least she helped us to become us … in a way. I mean, she didn't do that much, but I will always remember this thing she said in class … she said … … … well, I can't exactly remember what she said, but it was great!"

"Thank you, I guess," Kuroi-sensei muttered.

Kagami had insisted a non-alcoholic dinner, which was a good thing since now everyone started to propose toasts for all sorts of things.

"Toast to Patty-chan, for coming up with that festival performance!" Hiyori exclaimed.

"She really liked it. She couldn't stop watching the video and drawing everyone –"

Some looked shocked at this revelation by Patricia, while others laughed aloud.

Hiyori turned bright red. "Those were completely innocent drawings! … I-I mean, most of them were! And I didn't use your faces in doujins!"

"Oh yeah, she changed them … a bit," Konata noted. "You drew that original one that was all about a team of cheerleading girls. Lots of panty shots –"

"Konata!" Hiyori screamed. "That was a secret!"

"Come on, that was years ago. We are all adults now. I still have those doujins, so if anyone wants to see –"

"I think I'd like to see it …" Kagami said without thinking. "Just for reminiscing the old times, before you say anything, Konata!" she added.

"Kagami, we all know you're a pervert. No need to hide it."

"Shut up."

After Konata's toast, they came up with an endless number of more. Starting from a toast to their favorite teacher – present – and ending to a toast to Kagami's striped panties, suggested by Konata.

"Uh-oh … Misao is about to pass out …" Ayano sighed.

"M-me!? I'm perfcelty shober!" Misao spluttered, raising her head from the table.

"Excuse us," a duo of voices said. Mio and Ritsu had made a sudden appearance – as usual. "Kusakabe-san, we only gave you grape juice after the first glass of wine. Judging from your body weight and the elapsed time, your liver should already have metabolized the alcohol."

"Eh?" was all Misao could say.

The entire table burst into laughter.

"What? What'sh so funny?" Misao groaned, still apparently drunk.

"You can't be drunk because you haven't been drinking alcohol," Kagami explained patiently.

"I asked them not to give you any," Ayano added. "Because you are even more annoying while drunk."

Misao's jaw fell open and she only stared at Ayano for a while. "Impossible! … I thought I was very, very drunk!" she finally exclaimed, making the others laugh again.

"Oh, that was too funny! … hey, wait a moment. You did serve me real beer, didn't you?" Kuroi-sensei asked, glaring at Mio and Ritsu.

"Of course we did, auntie Kuroi!" they answered in unison.

"Eww, call me Nanako or Kuroi-sensei or whatever, but not that! Makes me feel old," Kuroi-sensei muttered.

Kagami stood up and asked, "Anyway, is everyone's staying the night? You too, Miyuki?"

"Oh. Yes," Miyuki answered. "I wouldn't miss this sleepover."

"Let's rest a bit, or take a little walk or something. Then we should take advantage of the baths and … whatever else we have in there. I don't even remember."

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Next Chapter: wild night, like the old days…


End file.
